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Agenda Setting Theory And Social Media

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Natalie Andris
Prof. Hetherington
COM 126-R6029
15 August 2015 Agenda-Setting Theory and Social Media The agenda-setting theory states that the media influences what people choose to think about. The theory emerged from communication studies and focuses on mass media and setting the public agenda. In the seminal article, McCombs and Shaw (1972) found a high correlation between media agenda and the public agenda through content analysis of a local election. The theorists wanted to discover what types of people are most susceptible to the media agenda through quantitative research. People acquire factual information and learn how important each topic is based on how much is it emphasized by the media. McCombs, Shaw, and subsequent researchers began researching the agenda-setting theory and it is still being developed today to observe how the media influences the public. In 1922 Walter Lippmann argued that mass media has the ability to create images of events in our minds known as the agenda-setting theory. Walter Lippmann was the first person to propose that images can be created in our minds through the actions of other people. In addition, he thought priorities of the media strongly influence the priorities of the public. Lippmann believed the media caused some of the pictures in our heads and allowed future researchers to further develop his ideas. McCombs and Shaw (1972), first conducted an analysis of the 1968 election 's newspaper and television content. McCombs

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