Linking Media Effects with Political Talk: A Theoretical Review

<p>Political talk has been a central focus of political communication research. However, grounded in a micro-conversational perspective often fall short in explaining the emergence of diverse forms of political discourse, as well as recent declines in both news use and participation in political talk. By presenting a macro-structural view of political talk and revisiting two classical media effects, this article provides a theoretical review on how agenda-setting and framing effects of general media and mediated communication can shape political talk, across cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. Theoretically linking media effects with political talk contributes to explaining macro-structural conditions for various political talk to happen, integrates both traditional and non-institutionalized forms of political talk, and generates a set of propositions and research questions to guide future empirical inquiry.</p>