Week 9 lecture summary: Agenda Setting

It’s time for another lecture summary!

Topic for today: Agenda Setting.

Before we begin, I guess all of us are unfamiliar with this term.

So, what is Agenda Setting?

It means that the mass media in a certain stage of an event / social issues highlight the report, which will cause widespread public concern and attention, and thus become a central issue in the discussion of public opinion.

There are four agendas which are interrelated:

u        PUBLIC AGENDA - topics that the public perceive as important

u        POLICY AGENDA - issues that decision makers think are salient, namely legislators

u        CORPORATE AGENDA - issues that big business & corporations consider important

u        MEDIA AGENDA - issues discussed in the media

Two main types of Agenda Setting Theory:

1^st level: focus on the transfer of the salience of those issues.

→ The media suggest what the public should focus on through coverage.

2^nd level: focuses on the attributes of the issues.

→The media suggests how people should think about an issue.

The Agenda Setting ‘Family’:

1. Media Gate keeping

- The exposure of an issue (what the media chooses to reveal to the public)

2. Media Advocacy (e.g. education)

- Promotion of a message through the media

3. Agenda Cutting

- Most of the truth/reality that is going on in the world isn't represented

4. Agenda Surfing / ‘Bandwagon’ effect

‘Bandwagon’ effect means how existing public opinion affects others towards that opinion

- The media follows the trends

5. The diffusion of News

- The process → an important event is communicated to the public

6. Portrayal of an Issue

- The way an issue is portrayed affects the public's perception

7. Media Dependence (e.g. Facebook)

- ↑Dependent a person → media for information,

   ↑susceptible that person → media agenda setting/ advertising

Therefore, we can see that the media plays an important role in ‘constructing’ and ‘mediating’ individuals’ conception of reality socially.