Public opinion and Agenda Setting in the UAE National News: A quantitative content analysis

This pilot study focuses on the media theory of agenda setting and its application to the UAE national news. The content of two major English dailies- The Gulf News and The Khaleej Times has been analysed to identify topics focused on, print space allocated for each topic and source of the news. A survey of the public has also been conducted to determine what readers view as important issues to see if they match the agenda of the newspapers. The study finds that public opinion is not reflected accurately in newspaper agenda. As only a small percent of news from the government agency WAM is published in the dailies analysed it can be assumed that the government does not set the agenda for newspapers. These interesting results warrant the need for an elaborate study analysing online news sources too.