Intermedia Agenda-Setting at the Network Level: Turkish Women's Volleyball Team in Media and Instagram

Abstract

McCombs (1992) highlighted the evolution of the agenda-setting concept, which has expanded from public issues to encompass gender-related topics, particularly in sports media. Research indicates that male athletes receive significantly more coverage than female athletes, often portrayed in ways that emphasize power and dominance, while female athletes are depicted through the lens of femininity and family life. This disparity influences audience perceptions of female athletes' importance. In Türkiye, media coverage of female athletes is similarly limited, with negative portrayals and objectification prevalent, especially in football. However, Turkish women's volleyball presents a notable exception, as female athletes have surpassed male counterparts in elite competitions. Their achievements in 2023 gained significant attention from both national and international media (e.g., Anadolu Ajansı, The New York Times). This study employs McCombs' agenda-setting theory to analyse the influence of Instagram on mainstream media coverage of the Turkish Women's Volleyball Team's triumphs in 2023. While traditional agenda-setting theory has demonstrated that media shapes public perceptions, the rise of social media has altered this dynamic, allowing citizens to influence mainstream narratives. Utilizing a network agenda-setting (NAS) framework, the study will explore whether Instagram content about the volleyball team's success influenced mainstream media coverage or vice versa. The NAS model posits that media connects different issues in news stories as bundles, transferring the salience of these bundled messages to the public. Given that Instagram boasts over 2 billion users globally, including 58.7 million in Türkiye, this study aims to assess the correlation between Instagram and traditional media agendas. It hypothesizes that mainstream media anticipates the public's Instagram agenda (Hypothesis 1) and that Instagram posts predict the content of newspapers (Hypothesis 2).