The agenda-setting function of mass media1 2

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell E. McCombs ◽  
Donald L. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
News Story ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media

Abstract In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. In reflecting what candidates are saying during a campaign, the mass media may well determine the important issues – that is, the media may set the "agenda" of the campaign.

Political Agenda Setting and the Mass Media

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Individual

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.

The Mass Media and the Policy Process

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelise Russell ◽  
Maraam Dwidar ◽  
Bryan D. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media

Scholars across politics and communication have wrangled with questions aimed at better understanding issue salience and attention. For media scholars, they found that mass attention across issues was a function the news media’s power to set the nation’s agenda by focusing attention on a few key public issues. Policy scholars often ignored the media’s role in their effort to understand how and why issues make it onto a limited political agenda. What we have is two disparate definitions describing, on the one hand, media effects on individuals’ issue priorities, and on the other, how the dynamics of attention perpetuate across the political system. We are left with two notions of agenda setting developed independently of one another to describe media and political systems that are anything but independent of one another. The collective effects of the media on our formal institutions and the mass public are ripe for further, collaborative research. Communications scholars have long understood the agenda setting potential of the news media, but have neglected to extend that understanding beyond its effects on mass public. The link between public opinion and policy is “awesome” and scholarship would benefit from exploring the implications for policy, media, and public opinion. Both policy and communication studies would benefit from a broadened perspective of media influence. Political communication should consider the role of the mass media beyond just the formation of public opinion. The media as an institution is not effectively captured in a linear model of information signaling because the public agenda cannot be complete without an understanding of the policymaking agenda and the role of political elites. And policy scholars can no longer describe policy process without considering the media as a source of disproportionate allocation of attention and information. The positive and negative feedback cycles that spark or stabilize the political system are intimately connected to policy frames and signals produced by the media.

scholarly journals A Response to McMurtry's System of Fallacy in the Media

1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Communication System ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
General System ◽  
Informal Logic ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Current Mass ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media

In the Fall 1988 issue of Informal Logic, John McMurtry suggests that the current mass communication system "obstructs and deforms our thinking and our reasoning by a general system of deception" (p. 133). This essay suggests that McMurtry's view of the mass media is inaccurate. The mass media needs to make choices about what material it includes; McMurtry's description of the media could be explained by a rational theory of media agenda setting. Finally. it is argued that critical thinkers need to go beyond the mass media to make decisions; the mass media should not be expected to provide all arguments and viewpoints.

AUTISM IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN MASS MEDIA: CONSTRUCTING OF THE IMAGE OF A HUMAN WITH ASD

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
Saveleva Zh.V.
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Adults With Autism ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
The Media ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
The Mass Media

The prevalence of autism is growing, the problems of stigmatization and discrimination of people with autism spectrum disorders in society are exacerbating. The mass media play an important role in enlightening and reducing stigmatizing effects, in connection with which the goal was formulated to study the construction of images of a person with ASD in the mass media by the method of qualitative and discourse analysis of video clips from the federal channel. According to the results of the study, it can be argued that the range of characteristics used to describe people with autism in media discourse is diverse, but in retrospect, dominant interpretation models can be identified. At an early stage, the prevailing image of a person with ASD was deprived of the quality’s characteristic of normotypical people who do not want to leave their world. People diagnosed with autism were referred to as the intolerant category of "autistic". Since 2013, there has been a discursive turn, within which the category “autist” is replaced by tolerant speech patterns, adults with autism get into the lens of the media, the topic of uncommunicability as a property of a person with autism is replaced by the intention of the lack of opportunities to communicate, one of the reasons for which is social exclusion. In television stories of recent years, the mass media are actively constructing the image of a person with autism spectrum disorder through his inner world, through the advantages that a person with ASD can have due to his characteristics. However, it cannot be said that there has been a complete change of the image: the old cliches, as a rule, manifest themselves at a more latent level of grammatical constructions and semiotic meanings.

scholarly journals The Key Words Agenda: New Avenues for Agenda Setting Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Nicoleta Corbu ◽  
Olga Hosu
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
Setting Theory ◽  
Points Of View

This article seeks to expand the agenda setting theory and its later ramifications, by complementing them with the hypothesis of the articulation function of mass-media. Defined as the capacity of the media to offer people the words and expressions associated with defending specific points of view, the articulation function suggests a new ramification of the agenda setting theory, namely the key words level of agenda setting. Building on the third-level assumption about the transfer of issues and attributes from the media to people’s agenda in bundles, we argue that each issue is in fact transferred together with a set of “key words”, corresponding to the additional sub-topics related to the issue.

scholarly journals The Big Brother Naija TV Reality Show as Coordinate of Media Functions and Dysfunctions

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Bolu John Folayan ◽  
Olubunmi Ajibade ◽  
Olubunmi Dipo Adedoyin ◽  
Toyin Segun Onayinka ◽  
Toluwani Titilola Folayan
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Big Brother ◽  
Reality Show ◽  
South West ◽  
The Media ◽  
Basic Functions ◽  
The Mass Media

The mass media play at least five basic functions which include news dissemination, surveillance of the environment, correlation of the components of the society, entertainment and transmission of social heritage.  Sometimes, disruptions and impairments do occur in the performance of these roles and some of these basic functions become dysfunctions, which turn the media into purveyor of negative values. The present study investigates how popular the Nigerian TV reality show, Big Brother Naija (BBN), is perceived by its viewers. Three hundred heavy viewers of the programme were surveyed from Lagos and Ede, South-West Nigeria, and their opinions and attitudes were sought regarding; why they like or dislike the programme; the gratifications that those who like the programme derive and whether the BBN, as media content, is generally functional or dysfunctional to the society. Sixty-six per cent 66 (33.7%) of respondents like the programme because it entertains. Half of the respondents, 99(50.5%) dislike ‘immoral aspects’ of the programme. The viewers affirm that the eviction part of the programme was their highest form of gratification.  Most respondents, despite public outcry against the programme, consider the programme to be “functional”. Findings reinforce the postulation that TV viewers are not passive consumers of media contents.

scholarly journals Catholic Church and the Italian public television. An enduring relation with an interlude: the Council

2015 ◽  
pp. 179-199
Author(s):  
Federico Ruozzi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Television ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The article presents the entanglement of the Catholic Church and the media by focusing on the case of the Second Vatican Council and the television broadcast of its events. The mass media attention of the council stimulated, according to the author, a double level: the media conveyed more information about the church event than it had ever done before, but at the same time, the mass media influenced the discussion of the council fathers. The article also analyzes, through the lens of the Council, the recent relationship between the Catholic Church and the Italian television.  

scholarly journals MEDIA AND PUBLIC TRUST TOWARDS COVID-19 INFORMATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176
Author(s):  
Muhammad Yunus Patawari
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Mass media is one of the leading sectors in handling COVID-19. Amidst current health emergency, public trusttowards the information conveyed by the mass media is the key to successful mitigation. Various types of newsregarding massive COVID-19 reports in several media channels have the potential to cause information bias whichends in pros and cons. Insubstantial debates in varied media are counter-productive to the efforts of various partiesin educating the society to avoid misinformation. Based on this, it is important to know the media that are referencesand that gain public trust in seeking information. This study examines the level of public trust in information aboutCOVID-19 in the mass media, both old and new media, using an online questionnaire methodology on May 3, 2020,which was given to 60 respondents. The results show that the respondents’ level of faith in television is higher, but itsconsumption by viewers is much lower than that of online media (news sites and social media). The results showedthat viewers still deemed television a reliable reference for information. From these data it was found out why themedia are rarely used by the people but are able to gain high trust in the eyes of the public. The results of this studyare expected to provide an overview of the attitudes and behavior of the community in understanding COVID-19information so that relevant parties can make appropriate policies in the perspectives of media and communication.

scholarly journals Factors that Influence Freedom of Speech and Self-censorship in Mass Media in Contemporary Russia

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Oksana Olshevskaya
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
In The Beginning

An attempt to define the degree of media freedom in contemporary Russia leads to contradiction between the declaration of the mass media freedom provided by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union heritage of unequivocal control of the press by the government, described by Siebert et al. (1984) as the Soviet-Communist Press Theory. The reason for this ambiguity could be explained by the great deal of different factors that exert an influence on the journalism, such as features of mass media legislation, governmental control of the media, the diversity of media ownership, sources of media incomes, and traditions of censorship in Russia.  The current development of the media legislation in Russia shows no improvement regarding the freedom of speech. In the beginning of the third presidential term in 2012, Vladimir Putin has signed several laws that reduced the freedom of speech through the limitation of public assembly, criminalization of defamation in the mass media, and intensification of governmental censorship on the internet. On the other hand, the contemporary press freedom that appeared in conditions of the new market economy in the beginning of the 1990s has brought discredit as to the conception of an exclusively positive impact of unconditional freedom on the mass media since the newspapers, television and radio channels were controlled by several powerful oligarchs who used the owned mass media to spread and support their political influence. However, after the authorities’ reference in the 2000s the balance was not regained. As a result, the majority of the media outlets in Russia became co-owned or fully controlled by the government. Another crucial aspect of the mass media freedom as the cultural phenomenon should be kept in mind: seven decades of severe censorship could not be erased from the journalism professional community’s memory in several years. The negative experience of predecessors transforms censorship into self-censorship in modern Russia.

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