LECTURE NINE

AGENDA SETTING – How the media CONSTRUCTS ‘REALITY’

→     An individual’s conception of reality is socially constructed through a process of communication using shared language. Reality is mediated through social life and the experiences each individual goes through. Media play a large role in ‘constructing’ or ‘mediating’ the social world as we understand it.

→     Through PUBLIC, POLICY, CORPORATE and MEDIA agendas individuals within the community associate and categorise topics or issues that relate to them and the way upon which they structure their lives.

→     As stated by Coleman, McCombs, Shaw and Weaver (2008) - “Agenda setting is the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that a large segment 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.”

→        ASSUMPTION (1) The mass media do not merely reflect and report reality, they FILTER and SHAPE it.

→        ASSUMPTION (2) Media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.

→     The mass media creates ‘IMAGES OF EVENTS IN OUR MINDS’.

→     WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

o   “Propaganda is used as a tool to help shape images in the minds of human beings in support of an enterprise, idea or group. Propaganda can be used to substitute one social pattern for another.”

o   As stated by LIPPMANN  - people rely on the images in their minds in formulating judgments rather than by critically thinking.

→          

→     Elite media often set the agenda for issues in other media

→     The AGENDA SETTING FAMILY

1.    Media Gatekeeping

2.    Media Advocacy

3.    Agenda Cutting

4.    Agenda Surfing

5.    The diffusion of News

6.    Portrayal of an Issue

7.    Media Dependence