The Third-Level Agenda Setting in the Contemporary China: Tracking Descriptions to Moral and National Education (MNE) in Government Policy, Media Coverage, and People’s Minds

This paper investigates the third-level agenda setting during the Anti-Moral and National Education (MNE) Movement in Hong Kong in the summer of 2012. Our analyses focus on 54 government policy information, 764 news media coverage and 343 public surveys describing the event. A triangulated research method was adopted that combines quantitative (content analysis and network associate) and qualitative methods (thematic analysis of government public relations activities). Evidence shows that media attribute network agenda can set both the implicit and explicit public attribute network agendas. Moreover, the media attribute agenda is positively associated at a higher level with the implicit public salience than explicit public salience of this attribute network. Implications of the findings are discussed.