FREE Agenda Setting In The Media Today Essay (original) (raw)

From the dawn of the mass media, the different mediums have found ways to try and control the way that we as Americans think. The idea of agenda setting is something that has been around since the 1920's. This idea of agenda setting, though not dealing directly with the media controlling the minds of the people, does look at the media's ability to control what we think about. It is able to do this by using a four step process of displaying issues in a way that people unconsciously believe an issue to be bigger than it actually is. While this idea of agenda setting is very interesting by itself, it becomes even more interesting when viewed as how it effects the media that Americans now encounter today. Perhaps the form of media that most readily uses agenda setting is the newspaper. To best look at the presence of agenda setting and the effect that it has, I looked at a specific newspaper for two weeks and viewed the occurrence of a certain subject. The subject that I chose was the war in Iraq, and with this issue I asked the question, does the newspaper USA Today use agenda setting to sway public opinion on the war in Iraq?.
Before looking at the research, it is first important to look at the theory that surrounds agenda setting. The first, and most important, aspect of agenda setting is that it focuses not on the media's ability to control what we think, but rather it's ability to control what we think about. In the book, The Emergence of American Political Issues, looks at this controlling idea of media. " This impact of the mass media- the ability to effect cognitive change among individuals, to structure their thinking- has been labeled the agenda-setting function of mass communication. Here may lie the most important effect of mass communication, its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. .
In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are .

1. Mass Media

When dealing with the mass media which refers to the technologies employed in mass communications there are two major areas, print media and broadcast media. ... The next function that the media does is setting an agenda. This means that they decide which issues have more precedence and need to be on the political agenda. ... All of these functions easily explain how the mass media does its job. ... The mass media is one of the greatest and easiest ways for us to stay on top of what is going on in the world today....

2. Implications of the Rise of technology

From the invention of the computer, to the development of the Internet, the rise of technology has had a profound impact on media culture, revolutionising the world we live in today. ... A significant development in media culture is that as media forums evolve in an online world, the theory of Agenda-Setting has become redundant. The Agenda-Setting theory posits that the media agenda and public agenda are analogous, meaning that what the media considered important, the public deemed to be relevant. ... However, with the rise of technology and new media, the Agenda-Setting theory is no longer a...

3. The Rise of Technology

From the invention of the computer, to the development of the Internet, the rise of technology has had a profound impact on media culture, revolutionising the world we live in today. ... A significant development in media culture is that as media forums evolve in an online world, the theory of Agenda-Setting has become redundant. The Agenda-Setting theory posits that the media agenda and public agenda are analogous, meaning that what the media considered important, the public deemed to be relevant. ... However, with the rise of technology and new media, the Agenda-Setting theory is no longer a...

4. Consumer information

By controlling which issues become salient enough to reach the arena of public debate, actors engage in agenda setting. Agenda setting takes place at many levels, but questions arise as to who has the power to set agendas, and how they do so. In an ideal democracy, the citizens would be the main pushers of given agendas, unfortunately, the public interests often lose out to the agendas of the policy and media elites. ... The most common arguments focus on three principle areas of agenda setting. ... In political debate, it is often the case that media and policy elites dominate the agen...

5. Communication & Mass Media

COMMUNICATION & MASS MEDIA It has been proven over time that our society today is undoubtedly a product of the media by way of newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards, movies, television commercials, as well as television programs. ... It is also a huge contributor in the agenda-setting function of the media. ... This is called agenda-setting. ... This agenda-setting for the public is not only established by the media alone but also by other powerful figures, such as the president of the United States. The media can have a very powerful effect on the public agenda. ...

6. politics and the media

Today, only twenty-three conglomerate corporations own the media. ... Here, one can distinguish between two types of media: the Agenda Setters and Mass Media. ... Agenda setters are the larger media corporations that set the trends, for example, the New York Times, NBC, and CBS. The mass media are the "trickle down media", which get all their information from the agenda setters. ... Chomsky notes that today media is besieged by advertisements and as a result "an advertising-based media system will gradually increase advertising time and marginalize or eliminate altogether programming that ...

7. Media Effects On Politics

Media Effects on Governing The mass media has played a major role in American politics since the formation of our country. ... Originally, media power was only vested in the papers, but today radio and television are the more prominent forms of news. ... These are agenda setting and priming. Agenda setting is the way the media dictates the salience of contemporary issues. ... Agenda setting effect is important to the government, especially the president, because it leads to priming. ...

8. Media and Democracy

Meaningful agenda-setting; 3. ... Many of today's news articles, particularly in the business section, hold the view as stated by B Singh Bolaria, author of our text, that "the natural environment is both passive and forgiving, it provides a cornucopia of resources for human advancement." ... The next major reason for lack of balanced information in our media is the concentration of media ownership. ... Today there is not just a tendency toward concentration, but toward "convergence" as well, which is a process of company mergers and cross-ownership (Mass Media In Canada). In Canada ...

9. Mass Communication

Wherever we turn in today's high tech society we are surrounded by the media though mass communication. ... This jump started my memory, I did remember looking at a news paper article in the USA today a few days previous highlighting the beginning of dangerous fighting in Afghanistan, and the loss of 7 US soldiers. ... Throughout Americas "War against Terror" the media has been using the agenda-setting function in dealing with the events in the war. ... This gives the media a lot of leverage. ... The media also functions as Correlation. ...

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