This study tries to negotiate two competing hypotheses involving the obtrusiveness of issues in media agenda-setting study: the ‘obtrusive contingency’ and the ‘cognitive priming’ hypotheses. The former holds that an individual’s direct experience overwhelms the influence of media coverage, so agenda-setting effects decrease as the obtrusiveness of personal experience with an issue increases. On the other hand, the latter contends that personal experience with an issue enhances, rather than lessens agenda-setting effects. Based on a theory of associative network, the study argues that obtrusive issues show agenda-setting effects within a shorter time period as compared to unobtrusive ones. The degree to which the US is involved in foreign policy issues was considered a criterion to determine the obtrusiveness of the issues.
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