Agenda-Setting Theory
Agenda Setting o Asks whether journalism makes a difference and whether it changes how the public thinks about the world Socio psychological tradition Objective theory Explored through content analysis and surveys (and sometimes focus groups) o Asserts that, over time, the media agenda shapes the public agenda : Overview o Media/Public interest consistently focuses on a stable list of issues Jobs, unemployment, inflation, cost of living, government spending. welfare, foreign relations, war, law and order, health, the environment. education, racial relations, technology o Attention/Coverage is a limited resource producing unequal attention Personal Agenda -- the list of issues most salient (relevant) to a single person over time -Public Agenda -- the set of issues salient to a group of people at a given time; the average of personal agendas (5-7 issues) Media Agenda -- the list of issues emphasized by the news media at a given time Agenda Setting -- the hypothesis that the media agenda influences the public agenda :Three levels of influence: what issues to think about, what aspects of an issue are important, and how issues are related to one another . Levels of Influence o What Issues to Think About (Object Salience) First level of agenda setting : The media influence which things are salient on the public agenda :"We judge as important what the media judge as important" -McCombs Measuring media salience -Position -- front page, opening/story, etc. - Length -- number of columns, length of segment, etc. Measuring public salience : Survey research : Issue ranking o Experiments show correlation is casual o What Issue Attributes Are Important (Attribute Framing) Second level of agenda setting : The media makes certain attributes of a media object salient: framing
: The media associate certain aspects of an issue to shape attitude toward it Tools of attribute framing -Selection -- what gets covered :Emphasis -- how it/what part of the story gets covered -Exclusion -- what is not covered : Elaboration -- how much an issue is covered Examples :Build Back Better Act and Inflation :Vaccine Effectiveness and Unequal Access o What Issues Go Together Third level of agenda setting - Connections are not optional, but they are still chosen by media coverage Identifying Media Issue Maps : Adjacency -- what topics lead or follow issues? - Connections -- what topics are linked to an issue within a story? Example : COVID 19 o Economic Impact o Unemployment o Mental Health o Government Spending o From Opinion to Behavior Examples : Trumbo o Flu coverage positively correlated with subsequent doctor visits o Flu cases did not correlate . Other examples o Product placement o Social media : Final Considerations o Establishing Media Agents Sources of influence : Other news organizations o Intermediate agenda setting -- one news source influences another -Emerging media -- TMZ, etc. - Partisan media -- Breitbart, Huffpo : Candidates, officeholders : Press releases :Interest Agressions Clusters of people who demand attention for an issue; pressure group/social movements
Gatekeepers o Edi