Abstract

This study examines possible differences across topics in how online venues set their own agendas. The one thousand most frequent online phrases were classified into nine topic areas (politics, economy, society, science, international affairs, entertainment, religion, personal life, and other) to explore which hot phrases tended to be exclusively online and whether online venues or print and broadcast media were better at leading the issues in certain topic areas online. The results imply that while a significant portion of the political, economic, and international affairs issues discussed online made appearances in traditional-form media messages, some topic areas suggest a unique role of online venues in developing issues. There were also significant mean differences across topics in the time lags on first mentioning a phrase and on the peak attention.