When Media Tenor started out in 1993, journalists stated: "We don’t make an impact." At Media Tenor’s first Agenda Setting Conference in Leipzig in 1999, some award winners would not even attend because "the media do not set the agenda."

20 years later, it is no longer a matter of discussion whether news selection leaves its mark on the reader or viewer when Greece, who contributed only 1.5% of Europe’s economic output during good times, receives 60% of the attention in opinion-leading media, this does set the agenda. And this applies not only for tourists but also for investors or central banks.

But it is not only the continued development in the field of strategic reputation management that shows to what extent agenda-setting research can now provide differentiated information on the interaction between the media and the public. Since Allianz started to provide assistance to companies with its own Reputation Protect Insurance in case of media damage and investment banks set up funds in response to media signals, discussions no longer are about if, as in 1993, but rather about how and with whom. Recent research in collaboration with Prof. Schwalbach of the Humboldt University demonstrates that the "awareness threshold" plays a key role. This could even be used to forecast the opinion of the economic elite on the prediction of the image values of the top 240 companies for Manager Magazin.

In a similar fashion, Method Invest in London could complete their backtesting based on Media Tenor data and show that certain media signals anticipate buying and selling behavior on the stock market also after the financial crisis. Agenda Setting at its best?

Welcome to the 14^th International Agenda Setting Conference.

Roland Schatz
CEO Media Tenor International