Agenda-setting

News plays an important role in shaping political reality. The amount of time spent on an issue and information relayed in the news story along with story’s position determine how much a reader learns.

Mass communication creates mass culture.

Agenda setting is the ability of media to determine through a cognitive process called ‘accessibility’, which is the process of retrieving an issue in the memory. Agenda setting is also influenced by a person’s perception to certain beliefs. For e.g. If a person is highly sensitive to cultural issues, then cultural news is most important.

Agenda setting happens after gatekeeping where the news is edited before it reaches the audiences.

In 1998 Mc Combs gave the concept of ‘Framing’ which simply means, media can not only direct people on what to thing about but can also shape how to think about an issue.

2 basic assumptions to be considered under Agenda Setting

1.       Media and the press filter and shape reality rather than reflect it.

2.       When media focuses on just a few issues and subjects, the public tends to perceive those issues as important.

Positive aspects of Agenda Setting Theory

-          Explanatory power as it explains why people prioritize certain issues

-          Predictive power as it predicts priorities of media audience according to news media content

-          Economical theory that is easy to understand

-          Theoretical assumptions are balanced and unbiased

-          Theory provides new areas for further research

-          Theory has organizing power because it helps to organize existing knowledge of media effects on society.

Types of Agenda Setting

-          Public Agenda Setting where the public is the dependent variable

-          Media Agenda Setting where media is the dependent variable

-          Policy Agenda Setting where policy makers agenda is the dependent variable.

Criticism of Agenda Setting Theory

-          Agenda setting of any media or news article is difficult

-          Surveys and studies are very subjective and not very accurate as there are too many variables to consider

-          With the emergence of new media, people have varied options from which to read about the same story from different angles

-          Today media uses two way communication unlike when this theory was developed

-          Agenda setting has benefits as media influences public and public influences policy

-          People might not look at the details and may miss some important points resulting in misunderstanding.

-          Media effect does not work on people who have a set mindset.

-          Media is not able to create information but is able to change the priority of information to public mindset

Additional Information:

The term 'agenda-setting' was coined by McCombs and Shaw to describe a phenomenon which had long been noticed and studied in the context of election campaigns.

The core idea is that news media indicate to the public what the main issues of the day are and this is reflected in what the public perceives as the main issues.

The agenda-setting hypothesis:
- Public debate is represented by a set of salient issues (an agenda for action)

- The agenda originates from public opinion and the proposals of political elite

- Competing interests seek to promote the salience of 'their' issues.

- Mass Media news selects issues for more or less attention according to several pressures, especially those from interested elite, public opinion and real-world events.

- The outcome in media (relative degree of prominence of issues) both gives public recognition to the current agenda and has further effects on opinion and the evaluation of the political scene.

- Agenda effects are peripheral and short term.

Agenda-setting has attracted Mass communication researchers because it seems to offer an alternative to the search for directional media effects on individual attitudes and behavior change.

Thus, Agenda-setting is the process of media influence (intended or unintended) by which the relative importance of news events, issues or personages in the public mind are affected by the order of presentation in news reports. It is Assumed that the more the media attention given to a topic, the greater is the importance attributed to it by the news audience. The media influence is not on the direction of opinion but only on what people think about. The concept has been mainly applied to political communication and election campaigns especially. Despite the near certainty that the process does occur as hypothesized, it is not easy to prove, because media take their priorities from public opinion as well as from politicians.

Ref: The above has been taken from Mc Quail's Mass Communication Theory.