Lecture 10 Agenda
Setting – How the media constructs reality
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Hey hey hey! It's been a while since the last lecture and now we are onto lecture 10! Can you believe how fast this semester has gone? Anyway, the topic that was discussed in the lecture yesterday was agenda settings and where it came from, what it is and the strengths and weaknesses associated with it. This particular lecture was packed with information and sometimes proved overwhelming! In the beginning we learnt that an individual’s conception of reality is socially constructed through a process of communication using shared language. Reality exists but the way we come to know it, talk about it, understand it, is mediated through social life. The media play a large role in ‘constructing’ or ‘mediating’ the social world as we understand it. The next part that was discussed really interested me, it was about how agendas are classed into four main categories. These were:
Hey hey hey! It's been a while since the last lecture and now we are onto lecture 10! Can you believe how fast this semester has gone? Anyway, the topic that was discussed in the lecture yesterday was agenda settings and where it came from, what it is and the strengths and weaknesses associated with it. This particular lecture was packed with information and sometimes proved overwhelming! In the beginning we learnt that an individual’s conception of reality is socially constructed through a process of communication using shared language. Reality exists but the way we come to know it, talk about it, understand it, is mediated through social life. The media play a large role in ‘constructing’ or ‘mediating’ the social world as we understand it. The next part that was discussed really interested me, it was about how agendas are classed into four main categories. These were:
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1) Public Agenda - the set of topis that members of
the public perceive as important.
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2) Policy Agenda - issues that decision makers think
are salient. (i.e. legislators)
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3) Corporate Agenda - issues that big business &
corporations consider important.
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4) Media Agenda - issues discussed in the media.
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· The lecture then continued onto the subject of agenda settings and what exactly it was and what it consisted of. Agenda setting is defined as the process of the
mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result
that large segments of the public come to perceive those issues as more
important than others. Simply put, the
more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people. In relation to the mass media, we learnt that it does not merely reflect and report
reality, they filter and shape it and also that media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads
the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.
The origin of agenda settings and the influence of mass media was then examined. Harold Lasswell (1920) developed a theory called the hypodermic needles model. Basically, it states that the mass media injects direct influence into the audience. There were also limitations to this model, such as how it was all one way, large lack of thinking and finally biological uniformity of reactions. Then there was Walter Lippman (1922), another theorist, who stated that the mass media creates images of events in our minds, the pictures in our heads. A quick explanation of what propaganda was and how it was used was discussed, which then led into the topic of Maxwell McCombs and Donald Show's experiment. Maxwell and Donald surveyed 100 undecided voters on the key issues and measured that against media content. Their hypothesis was that the mass media set the agenda by emphasising specific topics.
There are two main types of agenda setting theories, as the class learnt, which consisted of first level agenda setting theory and second level agenda setting theory. First level agenda setting theory is for the most part studied by researchers and emphasises the major issues and "the transfer of the salience of those issues." At this level the media suggest what the public should focus on through coverage. On the other hand, second level agenda setting theory is essentially, how the media focuses on the attributes of the issues. The media suggests how people should think about an issue. The basic process of agenda setting is firstly, the transfer of issue salience from the news media to the public, then the transfer of issue salience for both issues and other objects such as political figures and then the elite media often set the agenda for issues in other media.
Within agenda setting, there is an "agenda setting family" as such which consists of seven main parts. These were explained in detail in the lecture and it was extremely interesting to learn these family member parts. Firstly there's media gatekeeping which is the exposure of an issue and what the media chooses to reveal to the public. Secondly, media advocacy, the promotion of a message (e.g. health) through the media. Next, agenda cutting, which is when most of the truth or reality that is going on in the world isn't represented. Then, agenda surfing (“bandwagon effect”), this is where the media follows the crowd and trend, the media surfs on the wave of topics originally mentioned in the opinion-leading media, hence the name. Bandwagon effects are how existing public opinion influences others towards that opinion. After that there's the diffusion of news, the process through which an important event is communicated to the public, how where, when, news is released, who decides etc. Next was the portrayal of an issue, the way an issue is portrayed will often influence how it is perceived by the public. Different media outlets with different portrayals can cause the public the public to formulate their own perception. Finally, media dependence was defined as: the more dependent a person is on the media for information, the more susceptible that person is to media agenda setting.The most common media dependency is Facebook /Twitter. It has become a way of life as people are constantly feeling the need to check Facebook or Twitter every couple of minutes.
The strengths of the agenda setting theory were then discussed and it was seen that there were six main strengths that the agenda setting theory has. Listed below are these particular strengths:
The origin of agenda settings and the influence of mass media was then examined. Harold Lasswell (1920) developed a theory called the hypodermic needles model. Basically, it states that the mass media injects direct influence into the audience. There were also limitations to this model, such as how it was all one way, large lack of thinking and finally biological uniformity of reactions. Then there was Walter Lippman (1922), another theorist, who stated that the mass media creates images of events in our minds, the pictures in our heads. A quick explanation of what propaganda was and how it was used was discussed, which then led into the topic of Maxwell McCombs and Donald Show's experiment. Maxwell and Donald surveyed 100 undecided voters on the key issues and measured that against media content. Their hypothesis was that the mass media set the agenda by emphasising specific topics.
There are two main types of agenda setting theories, as the class learnt, which consisted of first level agenda setting theory and second level agenda setting theory. First level agenda setting theory is for the most part studied by researchers and emphasises the major issues and "the transfer of the salience of those issues." At this level the media suggest what the public should focus on through coverage. On the other hand, second level agenda setting theory is essentially, how the media focuses on the attributes of the issues. The media suggests how people should think about an issue. The basic process of agenda setting is firstly, the transfer of issue salience from the news media to the public, then the transfer of issue salience for both issues and other objects such as political figures and then the elite media often set the agenda for issues in other media.
Within agenda setting, there is an "agenda setting family" as such which consists of seven main parts. These were explained in detail in the lecture and it was extremely interesting to learn these family member parts. Firstly there's media gatekeeping which is the exposure of an issue and what the media chooses to reveal to the public. Secondly, media advocacy, the promotion of a message (e.g. health) through the media. Next, agenda cutting, which is when most of the truth or reality that is going on in the world isn't represented. Then, agenda surfing (“bandwagon effect”), this is where the media follows the crowd and trend, the media surfs on the wave of topics originally mentioned in the opinion-leading media, hence the name. Bandwagon effects are how existing public opinion influences others towards that opinion. After that there's the diffusion of news, the process through which an important event is communicated to the public, how where, when, news is released, who decides etc. Next was the portrayal of an issue, the way an issue is portrayed will often influence how it is perceived by the public. Different media outlets with different portrayals can cause the public the public to formulate their own perception. Finally, media dependence was defined as: the more dependent a person is on the media for information, the more susceptible that person is to media agenda setting.The most common media dependency is Facebook /Twitter. It has become a way of life as people are constantly feeling the need to check Facebook or Twitter every couple of minutes.
The strengths of the agenda setting theory were then discussed and it was seen that there were six main strengths that the agenda setting theory has. Listed below are these particular strengths:
- It has explanatory power because it explains why most people prioritize the same issues as important.
- It has predictive power because it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues are important.
- It has organising power because it helps organise existing knowledge of media effects.
- It can be proven false. If people aren't exposed to the same media, they won’t feel the same issues are important.
- Its meta-theoretical assumptions are balanced on the scientific side.
- It lays groundwork for further research.
The subsequent weaknesses were then laid out for the agenda setting theory. These included that media users may not be as ideal as the theory assumes.
People may not be well-informed, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful
and skeptical. Instead, they pay casual and intermittent attention to public affairs, often ignorant of the
details. For people
who have made up their minds, the effect is weakened. News cannot
create and conceal problems. The effect can merely alter the awareness, priorities
and salience people attach to a set of problems.
j Towards the end of the lecture, the 24 hour news cycle was analysed and how there is an increase for demand in stories for the news. The 24-hour
news cycle arrived with the advent of cable channels, and brought about a much
faster pace of news production with increased demand for stories that can be
presented as news, as opposed to the day-by-day pace of the news cycle of
printed daily newspapers. A high premium on faster reporting would
see a further increase with the advent of online news. A complete
news cycle consists of the media reporting on some event, followed by the media
reporting on public and other reactions to the earlier reports. The advent of
24-hour cable news channels and, in more recent times, news sources on the WWW
have considerably shortened this process. Finally, an overall question of how climate change could play a major part in the future for agenda settings was explained.
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