Fictional Agenda-Setting The influence of feature films on news coverage.

The agenda-setting approach traditionally deals with news coverage. However, there is also evidence that fictional entertainment can have an impact on the public's agenda. Our paper builds on those findings and focuses on a specific part of agenda-setting: the role of fictional entertainment in the process of intermedia agenda-setting. Using the feature film The Day After Tomorrow as an example, a time-series analysis was conducted to determine the impact of the film on news media coverage in Germany. Findings show that the film not only had a short-term effect on German news coverage of climate change but also an, albeit weak long-term effect. The effects remain when controlling for real-life events and the news input (indicated by the number of news agency reports). On the whole the results prove that political communication research needs to further consider and examine the political impact of fictional entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]