Short Memo
Aires310
Week9CommunciationTheory.pptxIntroducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application 6th edition
Richard West, Lynn H. Turner
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Chapter 21
Agenda Setting Theory (AST)
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Chapter Overview
History of agenda setting research
Assumptions of AST
Two levels of agenda setting
Three-part process of agenda setting
Expansions and refinements to AST
Integration, critique, and closing
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AST at a Glance
The media play an important part in shaping social and political reality
The public learns how much importance to attach to an issue by the attention given to it by the media
The media may determine what issues are important
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Introduction
Media
Tell people what is important by the number of times they report a story
Indicate what is important by what features of a story they emphasize and which they do not
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History of Agenda Setting Research
Pretheoretical conceptualizing
Park - Editors are gatekeepers
Lippmann - Mass media connect “the world outside and the pictures in our heads”
Lasswell
Surveillance
Correlation
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History of Agenda Setting Research (continued)
Establishing the theory
McCombs & Shaw (1972)
Examined the public and the media’s agendas during the 1968 presidential election
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Assumptions of Agenda Setting Theory
The media establish an agenda and in so doing are not simply reflecting reality, but shaping and filtering it for the public
The media’s concentration on the issues that comprise their agenda influence the public’s agenda, and these together influence the policymakers’ agenda
The public and policymakers have the possibility to influence the media's agenda as well
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Two Levels of Agenda Setting
Media framing
Size of headlines
Photographs included with a story
A story’s overall length and placement
Visuals accompanying a story
Priming
Cognitive process whereby what the media present temporarily influences what people think about afterwards
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Three-Part Process of Agenda Setting
The media agenda affects the public agenda, which in turn impacts the policy agenda
Complicating factors
Salience
Credibility
Conflicting evidence
Shared values
Relevance
Uncertainty
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Expansions and Refinements
Agenda Setting merged with ideas of Uses and Gratifications Theory
Who sets the media agenda?
High-power source and high-power media
High-power source and low-power media
Lower-power source and high-power media
Both media and source are low power
Intermedia influence and pack journalism
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Integration
Communication tradition
Socio-psychological
Communication context
Mass/media
Approach to knowing
Positivistic/empirical
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Critiques of AST
Scope
May be too large or too small
Media framing should be a separate theory
Utility
May not apply in new media environment
Heurism
Hundreds of studies
Applied to various topics in different countries
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