Media and The Agenda Setting Theory

Media has been playing a significant role in our daily lives by developing our personalities, enriching our knowledge and providing us with different sorts of information. It has a tremendous power in framing cultural guidelines and shaping political dissertation. If the information provided to the U.S. citizens is distorted, then they cannot make informed decisions on the matters of public policy. Thus, it becomes vital to the American democracy that the news media and its institutions remain unbiased, fair and accurate. Media bias happens when a media systematically and persistently emphasize one particular point of view that is usually below the standards of professional journalism. There can be various reasons for media bias, some of

The media is important for us the people to inform us about our government. In this paper I will show the relationship between the media and Congress. There are many forms of traditional media newspapers and magazines and TV news programs. Until recently people got most of their information and news from traditional sources. I would agree with scholars who argue that the media plays a major role as an agenda setter by focusing the public’s attention on a few issues. Public opinion is shaped in large part by people’s exposure to the media. There are two main areas of media agenda setting the first is reporting the news the second is telling us how to view the news.

Mass media is an ever-growing field where millions of people are connected at a constant basis. With that being said opinions and viewpoints are established on a daily basis through the media society reads. Many of these news media sources can be persuasive and have an influence on individual’s opinions. This concept is called framing. While it is related to the concept of agenda setting, framing focuses more on the issue at hand rather than on a particular topic. Framing is an important topic because of its major influence over the choices people make and how they process information. “Goffman stated that there are two distinctions within primary frameworks which are natural and social. Both play the role of helping individuals interpret

The power and consequently the responsibility of media, especially mainstream, is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. It often sets the agenda amongst the general public and is the reference point for the majority of the discussion surrounding it. For many, what they see and read in the media forms the basis of their opinions on most important topics. Despite warnings not to, many believe that everything they read in the media must be true.

In today's society, agenda setting is prevalent too. An example could be our daily editions of The Straits Times. Whatever is on the front page of the broadsheet can already be seen as an act of agenda setting by the media. The front page of the newspaper is usually what people look at first as the most salient news are placed there. In turn, agendas are already set for the audience as the medium is telling them that whatever is on the front page is of importance, and because these issues are brought to the public's attention, they would automatically think and generate

The invasion of privacy can be argued to be the most problematic issue in Canadian media. Media has shifted from simply just being entertainment source to the intruding on private matters at the expense of analyzing political matters. Our society today, formal media is becoming entertainment and private information or stories become accessed publically. Intrusiveness is common characteristics in modern Canadian media, we see this happening today to political leaders and celebrities. This is common for these public figures who are being watched by the media all the time. A public figure in comparison to regular citizens are used to dealing with media and are able to publicly respond to any types of negative allegations. It is important

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

Agenda Setting “The agenda-setting theoretical model claims that media exposure and the emphasis of certain attributes of the topic can increase the public salience of the topic and those emphasized attributes” (Fortunato, Abstract, 2008). This theory focuses clearly on how the media effects our everyday lives. With this theory media sources share information about a topic they want to push and get everyone talking about. Author of the journal NFL Agenda-setting states that theory can increase public salience of the topic (Fortunato, 2008).

The media bias is also not going away anytime soon. If I were to continue this research, I would implement the four theories, agenda setting theory, gatekeeping theory, social movement theory, and public opinion theory, and use them to analyze different events in the news. The point would be to see what theories give stories the most ‘stickiness’ and the most headlines. However, recognizing that many important stories do not gain the attention they deserve, I will also apply the theories to those incidents to see why they did not make it to mainstream

Understanding the background and history of the Agenda Setting Theory is imperative to this analysis. Dr. Max McComb and Dr. Donald Shaw developed the Agenda Setting Theory in a study conducted during the 1968 presidential election (McCombs & Shaw, 1972, p. 178). This study describes how if an audience is exposed to the same media, they will place importance on the same issues. This theory strictly presents information and sets the terms of public discourse. At the time, this was a trailblazing new idea.

Another concept that has been more clarified in these last few chapters is agenda-setting theory which is defined as “the focus on how the mass media can influence the public by the way stories are presented in the news (p.389).” From my groups of friends, I have always had the idea that the media shows us what we want to believe. For example, more recently the news has been focusing on police brutality against certain races and age groups. Yet when a police officer or group of policemen save a person’s life or does something honorable it is not recognized through the media, because it is part of their job to do those things. My best friend is a police officer for the San Francisco police department, and he shares many stories that are never shown on the media. Such as when a dangerous drug dealer is convicted, there isn’t a headline of “Drug

Agenda-setting is one of the most important factors in shaping public opinion. Agenda-setting can be defined as the ability of the media to direct public attentions toward the issues they believe are important to the public. But whose choice is it that determines which issues are more important over others? The news media can set an agenda-setting by focus attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinions from (McCombs). The media can paint a memory in your head by repeatedly repeating the issues on different media sources as Internet, network televisions, newspapers, etc. Since these sources are the cheapest and easiest to access, the information can be view by vast number of audiences. As quoted in a 1922 classic called “Public Opinion” by Walter Lippmann,

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which

The agenda setting theory is one of those terms that many people have heard about, but don’t exactly know what it means. So what exactly is the agenda theory, and how did it originate? Back in 1968, Dr. Max McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw did a study on the 1968 president election of the Unites States. They found a correlation between issues voters believed were important and issues reported prominently in the media. The study from Dr. Max McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw was eventually published in 1972. It was called “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media’’ and in the introduction they described what the theory consists of: “In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. In reflecting what candidates are saying during a campaign, the mass media may well determine the important issues—that is, the media may set the

The 2000 Presidential Elections are upon us and who do we turn to for information regarding the candidates? What issues will be the hot topics for the election race? For that matter, what will be the hot topics in the media for next week? Just as this paper must be structured, organized, and center around a main idea, so must all information presented to an audience. Information can only be easily processed if it contains some kind of structure. This includes the information that is provided by the media. The media have to structure their ideas and stories on a daily, weekly, and even monthly basis. This process is known as agenda setting. Television, radio, and print medias all use agenda