Importance Of Agenda Setting In Media

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Introduction Media agenda setting has in recent times retained the idea that the issues considered important by the media are the same as those considered important by the public; there by meaning that media agenda is the public agenda. Issue salience deems that public starts preferring and giving importance to news and views as set forth by the media as its views. The issues and stories thus covered by the media are believed to be those which are the priority of media and hence that of the public agendas. Media’s portrayal and power to influence has been validated though multiple instances in history for issues and people ranging from political candidates to environmental concerns. The consumption Media and “news’ is continuously evolving…show more content…
(Wahl-Jorgensen & & Hanitzsch, 2009). It was later in 1972 that McCombs and Donald Shaw coined the term “agenda setting” for this concept. The agenda setting purpose of mass media where media is fundamentally important derives the linkage between government and people as two institutions as per the original work of McCombs and Shaw published then. Thereby, it becomes the only connect of the mass with politics and takes up a pivotal role in doing so (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Earlier scholarly research and work about the effects of media conflicts the conclusion of McCombs and Shaw. The previous work focused on the assumption that media has negligible influence on the issues in the minds of the electoral. Further discussed in it is issue salience which is the method of making an issue seem important to public as set forth by the media…show more content…
This effect deals with the ways news and stories are shared across all media formats and channels amongst news agencies and reiterated the emphasis on framing suggested by McCombs and Shaw. After 9/11, the realms of news agenda of media and that of public revolve around themes such that the shows carry issues and stories in a particular pattern. These patterns are consistently based on selectivity of news issues where certain stories are brought to the fore and stressed upon while certain others are deliberately underemphasized or neglected to create a purported view that biases the interpretation of that story which further fuels the inter-media agenda setting procedure and thus public’s agenda (Norris, Kern, & Just, 2003). Object-attributes enable the media to convert articulated features of a news ‘object’ to the minds of the people quite well. This is another facet of the agenda setting theory validated by McCombs and Shaw. Media thus wields much stronger forces while setting an agenda for the common public which is given by this concept of object-attributes. The public opinion is therefore moulded by the way media depicts and also how people perceive news stories and issues. The power of media to set its own agenda and influence the public is enormous in this

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