1. Agenda setting theory: is it still applicable in the age of social media? By. Anish Parikh
2. Introduction Often consumers turn to interpersonal relationships which influence a persons attitudes and opinions (Friedkin, 1999). Social media websites provide greater interpersonal interconnectivity These opinion leaders often derive their opinions from traditional mass media sources(Katz, 1957).
3. Purpose & Research Question The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of traditional mass media on social media by looking at the diffusion of restaurant reviews. To address purpose of the article, the research question asked is: “Do restaurant reviews published in newspapers affect the number of posts in the social media space?”
4. Methodology A total of 13 restaurants reviewed by the New York Times were investigated Restaurants of various price points and cuisine, were examined to avoid bias Number of posts ±7 days of review bing published were compared. A matched pair t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between the number of posts Pre and Post review publication
6. Results (2) The analysis yielded a t-value of 1.6884 with a DF of 5. The two-tailed P value was 0.15, significantly over the alpha-level of .05 Although t-test failed to reject the null. This likely due to small sample size.
7. Implications A large number of social media posts regarding a restaurant appear after a review has been published in the newspaper This study shows that McComb’s 1972 agenda setting work still holds true in today’s social media environment
