Theory Application Paper

Introduction

The purpose of this theory application paper is to use agenda setting theory to explain how over time social media shifted the publics thoughts through their own agenda. Agenda setting theory is that over time, the media shapes the public agenda. The medias agenda are issues emphasized by the news media at a given time. Though over-time as the media progresses, so does our advancements in communication. First it was newspapers, then it was magazines, and in todays time it is social media. With so many different avenues as to who can now set the agenda, it poses the question of who does set the agenda in the digital era, and how does it separate the theory’s traditional and fundamental separation between the media’s agenda and the public’s agenda. Ermias Joseph Asghedom, known professionally as Nipsey Hussle was gunned down in his neighborhood of South-Central Los Angeles on March 31, 2019. Known as a prominent figure in his community for giving back and providing better opportunities for the less fortunate, he was also an influential rapper and songwriter. News of his death broke on social media site such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook just minutes after he was shot in the parking lot where his stores were located. By the time he had got to the hospital rumors on social media was that it was a gang related hit, another that the government was involved. This paper will show how agenda setting works in the digital era, and who can set the agenda in the digital era.

Background

Theories behind Nipsey Hussle’s death began to take over social media merely minutes after his death was confirmed. Many seemed to think it was the federal government, due to Hussle’s involvement in the making of a documentary on Dr. Sebi - A self-proclaimed healer of AIDs and all other diseases. Another theory was that his death was gang related, due to Hussle’s well known affiliation with the Rollin 60’s Crips. Because of these theories floating around social media, the publics opinion was able to be persuaded in believing either theory, before actually knowing the true reason of Hussle’s death. Agenda setting theory breaks down into three levels to explain in better detail the process of how the media persuades the public agenda.

One of the issues with agenda setting theory is that now in the digital era, where anyone can set the agenda, it threatens to destroy the fundamentals of the theory and the basis it was set upon between the media’s agenda, and the public’s agenda. Social media is acting in place of newspapers and news outlets in terms of where the public would usually discover important information.

This is significant to todays time because in the digital era anything can easily be manipulated and fabricated by anyone, whereas information from the news media is more honest and accurate in the hand of the gatekeepers -editors and other arbiters of culture who determine what will appear in the mass media. And it is event such as the death of Hussle that could further question who sets the agenda in the digital era. Though it is not only a question of who will set the agenda that is troubled as a result of the digital era, but also the other processes which come from agenda setting, one of which being agenda-melding.

Agenda-melding is the social processes by which we meld agendas from various sources to create pictures of the world that fit our experiences and preferences. It is a social process because agenda melding creates communities. People like to associate themselves with things they can relate to, from the people they hang with, to the media they choose. But if the medias agenda is no longer effective then there is no longer a reason to meld agendas, thus minimizing the number of communities being created as a result.

Theoretical Framework

This study draws on Max McCombs and Donald Shaw’s (1972) agenda setting theory to increase our knowledge on how agenda setting works in the digital era, and who sets the agenda based on recent examples in social media. McCombs and Shaw’s agenda setting, is based on their research in the capacity of mass media in influencing the voter’s opinion in the 1968 presidential election. From their research McCombs and Shaw discovered that mass media did affect a certain percentage of the public, in which they frequently referred to information as provided by the media. Along with others, such as the Gallup organization, McCombs and Shaw have been able to amass decades of evidence that documents the power of the press and found that agenda-setting occurs in three ways.

The first level of agenda-setting theory is that the media tell us what to think, and over time the public agenda became the media agenda. The media agenda being the list of issues highlighted by the news media at a given time. The second level is that the media tells us which attributes of issues are most important, by putting emphasis on certain issues over others. The second level of agenda-setting is also known as framing, which is defined by James Tankard -a leading writer on mass communication theory as “the central organizing idea for new content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, and elaboration.” (Griffin, 2018, p. 370). The third level of agenda-setting says that the media tells us which topics go together and examines how the mass media’s issue map impacts the public’s issue map.

Literature Review

Building on the work of McCombs and Shaw (1972) theory of agenda-setting in mass communication several contemporary researchers have established a relationship between agenda-setting and the affects it has on social media and the digital era. In a study, done by David Weaver, of the 2008 U.S. presidential election relying on interviews with voters in Chapel Hill, NC, the site of the original 1968 agenda-setting study. (2010). Found that those voters with a higher level of need for orientation did tend to use traditional news media, particularly newspapers and news web sites, to increase their knowledge of issues. In another study by Gabriel Weimann, Hans-Bernd Brosius in Political Communication in the Online World

Theoretical Approaches and Research Designs. They discuss the rising popularity of the Internet and online social media, noting that people have become more independent from traditional news media. They also study how many traditional media companies are beginning to adapt to some of the new online platforms and social media.

Research Questions

The following three research questions guided the study:

1. In the case of Nipsey Hussle’s death, how do the three levels of agenda-setting theory apply?

2. How does Nipsey Hussle’s death further question who sets the agenda in the digital age?

3. How do people in the digital era describe their perceptions and experiences of the media? Both new media and social media.

The Case

When Nipsey Hussle’s death began to spread around social media few news channels had gotten hold of the story. In the case of Hussle’s death, and the deaths of many other prominent people in society the issue is that social media is acting in place of newspapers and news outlets in terms of where the public would usually discover important information, and what may have taken an few days to reach the nation, now reaches them in merely seconds due to the internet. Using agenda setting theory to explain how over time social media shifted the publics thoughts through their own agenda involving the murder of Hussle. With so many different avenues as to who can now set the agenda, it poses the question of who does set the agenda in the digital era, and how does it separate the theory’s traditional and fundamental ideas as well as how agenda setting theory is used when talking about the late Nipsey Hussle. This paper will show how agenda setting can be applied to the digital era and who sets the agenda in the digital era.

Reference

Gabriel Weimann, H. B. (2015, December 07). A New Agenda for Agenda-Setting Research in the Digital Era | Political Communication in the Online World | Taylor & Francis Group. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317480020/chapters/10.4324/9781315707495-3