Intermedia agenda-setting effect in corporate news: Examining the influence of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on local newspapers

This study tested the first-level and second-level intermedia agenda-setting effect in corporate news. Significant correlations were found between the numbers of articles of nine food companies in the two US elite newspapers and many local newspapers. Significant correlations were also found between the number of articles containing seven attributes of a focal company, between the number of articles with four tonalities about it, and between the number of articles with four tonalities about its attributes. No strong evidence for the causal relationships was found. The significant correlations suggested that elite newspapers can be used as a proxy of local newspapers to explore the relationship between media coverage and corporate reputation. The test was based on a content analysis of 2817 news articles from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and many US local newspapers.