Lecture #11

Or Lecture #10, depending on how pedantic you are. It’s not like it really matters. We missed a week because of a public holiday. I hope I’m not confusing you too much. Gosh settle down it’s not a big deal, stop freaking out about it.  Please calm yourself.

Thanks.

So in this lecture we talked about Agenda Setting – how the media constructs reality. Agenda setting originated from around 1968 during the Chapel Hill campaign in which there was a survey of undecided voters.

Basically, there are four basic agendas which are all pretty self-explanatory.

·         The Public Agenda

·         The Policy Agenda

·         The Corporate Agenda

·         The Media Agenda

All of these agendas, while for the most part remain separated, are interrelated and can’t really function without each other.

There are also 2 basic assumptions about agenda setting, and they are:

1.       Mass media do not simply reflect reality, they filter and shape it AND

2.       Media concentration leads the public to place higher importance on something.

So basically,

The more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people.

The main thing we covered, however, was the Agenda Setting Family, which consists of:

MEDIA GATEKEEPING

This is how individuals control the flow of information through a channel, and has a lot to do with exposure and what is revealed.

MEDIA ADVOCACY

The purposive promotion of a message

AGENDA CUTTING

If something is given less time in the media, it’s given less importance. The example used was that the AIDS epidemic in Africa took a backseat in the news to Justin Bieber’s new haircut due to the fact that the epidemic simply isn’t given as much time in the news spotlight.

AGENDA SURFING/BANDWAGON EFFECT

This element of the family mainly relates to following the trends in the media, and public opinion influencing others.

DIFFUSION OF NEWS

Who decides how, where and when news is released? This is the process through which an event is communicated to the public.

PORTRAYAL OF AN ISSUE

The way an issue is portrayed will influence the public perception. For example, the way that aboriginal issues are portrayed in Australian media heavily mould the way many citizens approach the matter.

MEDIA DEPENDENCE

In this day and age, more and more people are becoming increasingly dependent on the media and technology. Therefore, the more dependent people are on media, the more susceptible to agenda setting.

Finally, we looked over the strengths and weaknesses of Agenda Setting Theory, which were all pretty basic and for the most part were common sense.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Explanatory power	Public may not be the ideal audience
Predictive power	The effect is weakened on steadfast minds
Organising power	Can’t create or conceal problems
Can be proven false	New media is weakening agenda setting
Scientific facts/research