The agenda-setting theory has long been around since investigations into the role of the media in the transmission of salience issues and what awareness it generates plus the priority the audience gives same was unearthed. Three... more
The agenda-setting theory has long been around since investigations into the role of the media in the transmission of salience issues and what awareness it generates plus the priority the audience gives same was unearthed. Three derivatives (policy agenda-setting, public agenda-setting and media agenda or agenda building) earlier identified by Rogers and Dearing have been instrumental to these processes and investigations. On account of the impact of the Internet on the communication ecosystem and to complement the earlier three offshoots, the agenda-setting framework is ripe for additional amplification. And because the Internet has expanded the media ambit and rendered additional platforms via convergence and digitization, a distinct category of media content influencer/source has been birthed. Do celebrities have enough impact on Media offering or salient issues that makes it into editorial content? What do available empirical studies say about the preceding query? Employing causal explanatory research design, while using literature review as a research instrument, this article, therefore, examined the historical background of the agenda-setting theory and the dimensional influence of celebrities in the agenda-setting scope and subsequently developed a springboard for the proposed derivate—the 'Celebrity agenda-setting'—whilst considering its conceptual plausibility which is hinged on the impact of the New Media and audience behaviour. Since this is a preliminary proposition; it is posited that scholars and researchers in the communication ecosphere give this concept further attention and exposition. Keywords: Celebrity Agenda-setting; Celebrity journalism; Internet impact; Entertainers; Social media
