Lecture Ten

Agenda Setting - How the media constructs reality

The all-powerful media plays a large role in the mediation of the social world. That which is released by the media is seen to be of certain import. Thus, journalists have great influence in constructing public opinion. Agenda setting transfers the salience of an issue from the mass media to the public.
The two main types - first and second level agenda setting - suggest what and how the public should think about an issue.

In society today there exists four interrelated agendas:
1. Public Agenda
2. Policy Agenda
3. Corporate Agenda
4. Media Agenda

Coleman, McCombs, Shaw and Weaver defined agenda setting in 2008 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"

It must be assumed when thinking of media agenda setting that the mass media does not merely reflect and report reality, but filter and shape it. Another assumption is that media concentration governs public perception regarding the importance of the issues.

Agenda setting as a theory developed in the 1920s by Harold Lasswell who formed the 'hypodermic needle model' which purported that the media 'injects' direct influence into the audience. This theory is very much about propaganda and is seen to be quite limited. In 1922, Walter Lippman brought forward the idea of 'the pictures in our heads' which are drawn by our media exposure. He thought that people rely on these images in the formation of personal beliefs and opinions rather than thinking critically about the topic. In this way, "propaganda is used as a tool to help shape images in the minds of human beings". What I loved about Lippman's theory is his advice, which can and should be considered a great manifesto for a journalist:

"Yet in truly effective thinking, the prime necessity is to liquidate judgements, regain an innocent eye, disentangle feelings, be curious and open-hearted."

He introduced the notion of the power an image holds, a thought that lends itself to the knowledge of Leni Riefenstahl who made the infamous Nazi propaganda film, "Triumph of the Will". Later, in the 1960s, Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw conducted a survey which led to their hypothesis that the mass media sets the agenda by emphasising specific topics.  The relative salience of an issue on teh media agenda determines how the public agenda is formed, which in turn influences which issue policy makers consider. (Interrelation of agendas!)

The Agenda Setting 'Family' consists of seven elements:
1. Media Gatekeeping - the exposure of an issues (very prominent in the USA)
2. Media Advocacy - purposeful/purposive promotion of a message
3. Agenda Cutting - most of the truth and reality in the world remains unrepresented
4. Agenda Surfing/Bandwagon Effect - media follows the crowd; existing public opinion influences others towards that opinion
5. Diffusion of News - process through which an important event is communicated to the public
6. Portrayal of an issue - particular portrayal of an issue will, of course, influence public opinion
7. Media dependence - most common media dependency is that put on the social networking sites of facebook and twitter, which becomes a 'way of life' and makes people reliant on that form of media representation

The strengths of the agenda setting theory lie in its explanatory power, predictive power, organising power, its ability to be proven false, its scientific element and its power to spur on further research. Its weaknesses include the faulty idea that an audience is passive, ideal and wholely impressionable, as well as the rise of new media threatening traditional principles of agenda setting.

The modern 24-hour news cycle means that an old-school reliance on newspapers is being replaced. Thus, the traditional concepts of 'prime time' are shifting and news production is fast-paced as stories are constantly in demand. This constant demand, I believe, calls into question the quality of what we are exposed to. How can there possibly be exceptionally 'newsworthy' stories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A lot happens in the world, of course, but is it newsworthy? Is Justin Bieber's new hair cut really worth a place in the news alongside the famine in Africa or the riots in Greece?