Priming within political communication studies

Ewa Nowak

Pełny tekst artykułu English version of the article

The study is devoted to the priming concept and the priming effect, as well as their role and consequences for political communication. The concept of priming is considered within cognitive psychology as a cognitive situation. In this situation, the preceding positive incentive can modify the manner in which the following incentive is recognized and processed. Within political communication, priming analysis focuses on the criteria used by the audience in evaluating political objects and reality. The priming concept suggests that the most accessible issues in media broadcasts become the standards of assessing political reality. Priming is regarded as a very meaningful concept within communication science, but studies in this field are relatively rarely, the same with studies on the relationship between priming and the agenda setting hypothesis. This study is an attempt to organize current ideas about the political dimension of priming and to specify the relationship between these two concepts.

KEYWORDS

priming, priming effect, agenda setting, mass media effect