A CONVERGENT PARALLEL MULTI-METHOD QUANTITATIVE DESIGN FOR STUDYING MEDIA AGENDA AND PUBLIC AGENDA IN A POLARIZED POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This paper presents a convergent parallel multi-method quantitative design for studying the relationship between media agenda and public agenda in a politically polarized environment. Most agenda-setting research treats media content and public opinion as separate concerns, limiting how well scholars can explain the transfer of issue salience from media to the public. This paper addresses that gap by reconceptualizing a doctoral research design as a standalone methodological contribution, detailing why the design was necessary, how it was constructed, and what it offers future researchers. The framework combines quantitative content analysis of prime-time television headlines with a public survey conducted in five capital cities of Pakistan. Out of 384 respondents contacted, 365 valid responses were collected and analyzed. The content analysis covered the first 15 headlines of 9 PM bulletins from PTV News, Geo News, and ARY News on odd dates from November 2023 to January 2024, measuring source, slant, frame, salience, coverage, and placement across six national issues. The survey measured issue salience, source preference, opinion formation, trust, and discussion patterns among viewers. Applied to Pakistan's pre-election media environment, the framework detected a strong, statistically significant relationship between television coverage and public issue priorities, alongside clear ownership-based differences in framing between the state-run and private channels and a more conditional, trust-mediated pattern of transfer for less domestically salient issues. These results demonstrate the design's capacity to capture both convergence and divergence between media and public agendas within a single integrated model, offering a structured, replicable approach for studying media influence on public opinion in Pakistan and other politically divided societies.