WEEK 11 - "Agenda Setting"

I found this to be an interesting lecture because, although it seems relatively self explanatory, ‘agenda setting’ was not a term that I could have defined before today. Below are some main points that I’ve compiled to summarise what I found important.

First, what does agenda setting actually mean? Well, as Dr BR pointed out, agenda setting isn’t actually too difficult a concept to grasp. Agenda setting is the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently, resulting in public belief that those issues are more important than others. So what this really means is that the media constructs the publics’ perceptions of reality and opinions in order for them to suit the agenda they wish to put forth. Understand this, and you’re good to go!

Here’s a nice diagram which sums this up:

Secondly, it’s important for us to understand where the concept of agenda setting came from. This is best explained through the Hypodermic Needle Model (Lasswell 1920s) which argues that the mass media ‘injects’ direct influence into the audience creating a one way, non-thinking method of communication. Lippmann (1922), another cool dude, argued that people rely on the images in their minds in formulating judgments rather than by critically thinking. A good example of this is the images and propaganda that Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl circulated prior to and during WWII.

So what is it that agenda setting actually does? Well it:

• Transfers issue salience from the news media to the public
• Transfers issue salience for both issues and other objects such as political figures
• Allows elite media to set the agenda for issues in other media

But, “Agenda setting is not always the diabolical plan by journalists to control the minds of the public but ‘an inadvertent by-product of the necessity to focus’ the news” (McCombs 2004). I’ve listed below the agenda setting ‘family’ (it’s quite a big one) which focuses on the particular roles of the media when deciding what should be news.

1. Media Gatekeeping – the exposure of an issues; what the media chooses to reveal to the public
2. Media Advocacy – the purposive promotion of a message through the media
3. Agenda Cutting – most of the truth or reality that is going on in the world isn’t represented
4. Agenda Surfing – the media follows the crowd and trends; the media ‘surfs’ on the wave of topics originally mentioned in the opinion-leading media
5. The diffusion of News – the process through which an important vent is communicated to the public
6. Portrayal of an Issue – the way an issue is portrayed will often influence how it is perceived by the public
7. Media Dependence – the more dependent a person is on the media for information, the more susceptible that person is to media agenda setting; e.g. Facebook/Twitter

The 24-hour news cycle has an important relationship with agenda setting. 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.

So the real take home message today: The media has the power to influence and construct narratives around what we see and do not see, are told and not told. So engage with the news with a critical mind and never take news at face value...