Priming is a sociological concept which claims that the activation of a single thought in an

individual's mind can lead to the activation of thoughts that are semantically close to it. There are
many definitions of priming, but combining all of them, we can say that priming is the influence of
previous information on subsequent information without the active participation of a person or, in
other words, the activation of specific associations in memory. Some experts consider priming like
"autopilot", which is able to force a person to act on a subconscious level and to determine the
manner of a behavior based on previous events. About the priming in media, the theory claims that
media images stimulate related thoughts in the minds of the audience. The ground of the theory of
political priming is the assumption that people do not have sufficient knowledge about the current
political processes in the society and do not consider the whole amount of the information available
to them during making political decisions. Instead, people tend to take into account only the
information from the surface of the information space. By highlighting of some aspects of public life
at the expense of others, the media can ultimately contribute to the decision to vote for a particular
candidate.

The theory of setting an agenda is the one which is in close relations with priming theory. And there
are several reasons for why they can be connected with each other. First of all, both theories aim at
prioritizing of “noticeable” information, which shows that people are primarily using the information
from the surface, not going deeper, when making decisions. The second reason can be considered the
fact that the priming can be saw as the second part of the process of public’s mind manipulation, after
establishment of an agenda.

Agenda-setting theory is a positivist theory claiming that the mass media is able to significantly
influence the public directly by the selection of what they cover. The most understandable and
precise explanation of this theory was created by American researcher Bernard Cohen, who said:
"The press mostly fails to tell people what to think, but it is very successful in telling them what to
think." According to the theory, news does represent the reality. Instead, they create another reality,
filtered, socially constructed and edited one. This complex process is done by journalists, editors,
publishers and media owners-that is, and other members-intermediaries between information and
the public. The media is able to emphasize certain events and focus attention on them, mentally
forcing the audience to consider these events to be extremely important. In this exact way, according
to the theory, the mass media forms the minds of the public on certain issues. And the same events
that are not widely covered and highlighted by the mass media, the public may not be aware of at all.
Moreover, media agents are able to actively implement the message they need. For example, while
articles in the Internet, it is the high possibility that you will notice that, in addition to the main idea
of the article, there are also some links to similar information, previous events or recent forecasts,
leading the reader along the chain into the distance, thereby shaping his social reality.