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International agenda-setting effects of Saudi Arabian media: A case study

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of Saudi Arabian media in setting the intrapersonal, interpersonal and international agenda for the civil servant employees in Riyadh, the capital city. Al-Riyadh and Al-Sharq Al-Awsat were selected for analysis as they were reported to be the most popular Arabic language newspapers in Riyadh. In addition, the two television channels in Saudi Arabia were also examined for their agenda- setting effects. The results of our study indicated that while the mass media were not successful in influencing the intrapersonal and interpersonal agendas of the public, they were very effective in influencing the salience of issues in the public's international agenda. The crosslagged correlations showed that the direction of influence was from the mass media to the public and not vice-versa. The findings of this study have important implications for the agenda-setting functions and impact of the media in countries with a tightly controlled information processing and disseminating system. It is hoped that testing the agenda-setting effects in Saudi Arabia may suggest some generalities that may be relevant to other countries in the Third World with similar socio-political systems.