AGENDA SETTING EFFECTS IN THE AGE OF INTERNET: ANALYZING THE TRANSFER OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES’ ATTRIBUTES FROM NEWSPAPERS TO TWITTER CONVERSATION DURING THE 2018 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN PAKISTAN

Studying the transfer of candidate salience and attributes from media agenda to public agenda has gained traction in the past few decades. However, most studies analyzing agenda setting effects with respect to candidates are conducted in countries with free and fair media. There are very few agenda setting studies in countries with censored media. Having three subsequent successful elections in the country with heavy restrictions imposed upon media, this study attempts to fill the gap by focusing on the candidates during the 2018 Pakistani General Elections. The relationship between their coverage in traditional media, and their portrayal in the political deliberation on Twitter is investigated. The three major candidates in the 2018 elections were analyzed for this study – Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto. Their five substantive attributes – ideology and issue positions, culture, qualifications and experience, personality and image, and, integrity – were tested for their valence in newspapers and then compared to conversation on Twitter. Results showed that there was a skewed relationship between the narrative on newspapers and the Twitter conversation. Out of 14 variables, there was a relationship between the two media in only 8 of them, while the rest had significant differences, showing that agenda setting effects are not direct in countries with regulated media.