"The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about."—Bernard C. Cohen, 1963

The Press and Foreign Policy - Anna’s Archive

The Agenda-setting theory is the theory that the mass-news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them.

History

Foundation

1. Media Agenda - issues discussed in the media (newspapers, television, radio)
2. Public Agenda - issues discussed and personally relevant to members of the public
3. Policy Agenda - issues that policy makers consider important (legislators)
4. Corporate Agenda - issues that big business and corporations consider important (corporate)

1. the press and the media do not reflect reality, they filter and shape it
2. media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues

• Characteristics: research has focused on characteristics of audience, the issues, and the media that might predict variations in the agenda setting effect.
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• Need for Orientation: Research done by Weaver in 1977 suggested that individuals vary on their need for orientation. Need for orientation is a combination of the individual’s interest in the topic and uncertainty about the issue. The higher levels of interest and uncertainty produce higher levels of need for orientation. So the individual would be considerably likely to be influenced by the media stories (psychological aspect of theory) (Miller, 2005).
   
• Issue Obtrusiveness: Research performed by Zucker (1978) suggested that an issue is obtrusive if most members of the public have had direct contact with it, and less obtrusive if audience members have not had direct experience. This means that agenda setting results should be strongest for unobtrusive issues because audience members must rely on media for information on these topics (Miller, 2005).

• First-level agenda setting This is the level that is most traditionally studied by researchers. In this level the media use objects or issues to influence the public. In this level the media suggest what the public should think about (amount of coverage).
   
• Second-level agenda setting. In this level the media focuses on the characteristics of the objects or issues. In this level the media suggest how the people should think about the issue.
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• There are two types of attributes:
  • cognitive (sustentative, or topics)
  • affective (evaluative, or positive, negative, neutral)
     
• Intermedia agenda setting (salience transfer among the media)
• (Coleman and Banning 2006; Lee 2005; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996)

• Gatekeeping - Control over the selection of content discussed in the media; what the public know and care about at any given time is mostly a product of media gatekeeping.
   
• Priming - Effects of particular, prior context on retrieval and interpretation of information. The media's content will provide a lot of time and space to certain issues, making these issues more accessible and vivid in the public's mind (Miller, 2005).
   
• Framing - Framing is a process of selective control over media content or public communication. Framing defines how a certain piece of media content is packaged so it will influence particular interpretations. This is accomplished through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration. This is central to second-level agenda setting.

• political advertising
• political campaigns and debates
• business news and corporate reputation (Carroll & McCombs, 2003)
• business influence on federal policy (Berger, 2001)
• legal systems, trials (Ramsey & McGuire, 2000)
• role of groups, audience control, public opinion
• public relations (Carroll & McCombs, 2003)

• It has explanatory power because it explains why most people prioritize the same issues as important.
• It has predictive power because it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues are important.
• It can be proven false. If people aren’t exposed to the same media, they won’t feel the same issues are important.
• Its meta-theoretical assumptions are balanced on the scientific side.
• It lays groundwork for further research.
• It has organizing power because it helps organize existing knowledge of media effects.

• Media users may not be as ideal as the theory assumes. People may not be well-informed, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful and skeptical. Instead, they may pay only casual and intermittent attention to public affairs and remain ignorant of the details.
• For people who have made up their minds, the effect is weakened.
• News media cannot create or conceal problems, they may only alter the awareness, priorities and salience people attached to a set of problems.
• Research has largely been inconclusive in establishing a causal relationship between public salience and media coverage.