The Agenda setting and attribute agenda setting framework
By François TRETARRE, Territories of Tomorrow Foundation

The Agenda setting and attribute agenda setting framework help us to understand that the Media does not decide what people think but they decide what to think about (Agenda Setting) and how to think about it (Attribute Agenda Setting).
The correlation between people’s agenda and the Media’s agenda is high and depends on some factors such as exposure or need of orientation of people.
But the Media do not really decide themselves of this agenda. These are interest groups who push issues (Agenda Building).
Moreover, the Media can’t decide of an agenda if stories do not interest audience since people decide to attend or not attend and the Media are firms that have to earn money by advertising.
The other point that is influenced by the Media is how people think. The Media can decide of the central theme and aspects of news stories. This framing will influence the way people think about the object.
The Agenda Setting Attribute theory could be considered as the second level of Agenda Setting theory. Attributes are specific points of an object and people have these attributes in mind when they think about the object. Knowledge of these attributes most of the time comes from news stories and will influence the way people think about the object.
A specific part of Agenda Setting theory is priming. This means that the Media highlight a specific object during a certain time so that people will think about it.