LECTURE #9 - AGENDA SETTING

Lesson 9 – How the media “constructs” reality.

“Agenda setting…is all a bit obvious really…” – Bruce Redman (2011)

Agenda setting – a simple enough concept really, but one that none of us generally think about on a conscious level in our everyday lives. In this lecture we discussed the basic ins and outs of agenda setting and what the whole thing means for journalism and the audience…

Setting the agenda – a simple definition:

“Agenda setting is the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that large segments 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 the people"

So, what exactly are the “agendas” out there, let me introduce you to the

‘4 agendas’:

1)   PUBLIC AGENDA – the set of topics that the public perceive as important.

2)   POLICY AGENDA – issues that decision makers (legislators) think are salient.

3)   CORPERATE AGENDA – issues that big business/corporations consider important.

4)   MEDIA AGENDA – issues discussed in the media.

These agendas are all interrelated; I found this diagram illustrated the connection really well:

                                              

 

REALITY REALITY VS MEDIA REALITY

The mass media do not merely reflect and report reality, they FILTER AND SHAPE it. But where did this idea come from?

Harold Lasswell’s “Hypodermic needle model”, created in the 1920s, suggests that the mass media “injects” direct influence into the audience – this is also known as the “Magic Bullet”. The limitations of this theory in today’s terms is that it is all one way - suggesting that humans are non-thinking beings, biologically uniform in reactions which is simply not the case.

In 1922 Walter Lippman (newspaper columnist) suggested that the mass media creates images of events in our minds. For example, the moment we heard about September 11 through the media, the image of a plain exploding into Twin Towers immediately came to mind. Since this incident mass media has created ‘hype’, which has affected the way we view the Muslim community as Western society.

Two main types of Agenda Setting Theory summed up:

1. The media suggests WHAT public should be focus on.

2.  The media suggests HOW people should think about an issue.

 “Why do the media set the agenda? Because they can” – Bruce Redman

The Agenda Setting ‘Family’:

-         Media advocacy – “The purposive promotion of a message (e.g. health) through the media…”

-         Agenda cutting – “Where most of the truth or reality that is going on in the world isn’t represente”, e.g.  AIDS taking a backseat to Justin Bieber’s new haircut- the important issues are cared about less.

-         Agenda surfing/band wagon effect – YouTube videos (e.g. Clip of the Day segment on Chanel 9’s ‘Today’) make it easy for media to ‘ride the wave’ created by the opinion-leading media.

-         Diffusion of news – “The process where an important event is communicated to the public”. This basically means how, when, where and why news is released who decides this? The fact is not every newsworthy event in the world can be covered – there are simply far too many.

-         Media Gatekeeping – “How individuals control the flow of messages through a communication channel.”

 

-         Portrayal of an issue – The way an issue is portrayed will often influence how it is perceived by the public – e.g. Indigenous Australians, the Muslim community.

“I do understand we have to have a government, and I do firmly believe in democracy. So it’s not true to say that I’m not a political person. But I am always asking myself, why is this lying bastard lying to me?”

- Jeremy Paxman

An example of how one ‘factual’ story can be affected by agenda setting which really stood out to me in the lecture was the coverage of the trial of OJ Simpson in which ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Time’ magazines had very differing opinions on the matter:

If that’s not agenda setting – I don’t know what is!

IN CONCLUSION, our perception of reality is very much affected by media we consume. As an intelligent audience we should be critical of the news we hear, keeping in mind where we heard it from. As good journalists, we must keep to our integrity and shy away from agenda setting, because it’s our job to always seek the opposing perspective.