Agenda setting is a bit of a difficult concept to get your head around. Like gravity and evolution, it is merely a theory. And this theory states that mass-media have a big influence on what the public deems important and how they perceive issues. Basically, it states that the more coverage the media gives an issues the more important we think it is. It is one of those theories that we can immediately see proof of. If we see a story circulating the news and Internet and social media, we will obviously think that it is very important because so many people seem interested in it. MY theory is that if the media started deciding that the sport curling (it's actually the most fascinating sport) deserves a lot of media coverage, it will easily filter down to the masses and make the sport well known. And this could be true for anything.
The first result of Agenda Setting is that the public deems a topic important. The second result is the more significant result and that is that the way media portrays a story influences how people think about that issue. Bruce described it as "the pictures in our heads". This is very true; what the media tells us is almost always the only side of it we ever hear and that will be the way we perceive a story too.
Agenda setting involves the way news stories portrays issues, how they tend to go with whatever topic is popular that week (bandwagon effect) or when and how they choose to publish a story. This can be good in they way that they convince the public of health issues and things, but it can also be bad if they twist the truth to fit their own agenda.
The only example I can think of off the top of my head, is one of Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa (I sincerely apologize for all my examples always being South African ones, it just always seems to end up there).
A few years ago in an interview President Zuma reportedly stated that he had a shower after having unprotected sex with a HIV-positive woman to reduce the risk of getting the disease (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4879822.stm). This caused quite a stir in South Africa, because of SOuth Africa's HIV problem and the absolute inaccuracy of that statement. Trust me, I have been throught eh schooling system, and every school child from age 7 to 18 is constantly (to the point of near madness) being taught about every single aspect of that disease. Well, this statement caused a very prominent and famous cartoonist to draw Jacob Zuma with the a shower head over head in every cartoon he drew from then on.
How this relates to Agenda Setting ( I believe) is that because the media chose to magnify this issue and constantly remind the public about, made it a very prominent story. It could have gone unnoticed if the media did not report on it, but they did.
The theory has definitely been affected by new media, because information is given to us constantly and everywhere. And the influence of media can only stretch so far. People can only be influenced up to a point, and then they will make up their own minds.
No comments:
Post a Comment