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Chapter 9. Agenda Setting. Agenda Setting. The media determines the importance placed upon particular issues. Gatekeeping: control exercised by media professionals over the flow of news information. Conceptual Roots. Walter Lippmann Public Opinion (1922)
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Chapter 9 Agenda Setting
Agenda Setting • The media determines the importance placed upon particular issues. • Gatekeeping: control exercised by media professionals over the flow of news information
Conceptual Roots • Walter Lippmann • Public Opinion (1922) • News media is responsible for shaping the public’s perception of the world. • Media projections create a pseudo-environment for news consumers.
Agenda Building • Concept that allows for the collective influence of and reciprocity between the public and the media in setting the agenda .
Research Tradition: Phase 1- Initial Study • Chapel Hill study • McCombs and Shaw • The issues considered salient by the news media were also considered salient by the general public.
Research Tradition: Phase 2- Replication • Charlotte Voter Study (1977) • Shaw and McCombs • Voters who used mass media more often than others were more likely to have agendas that matched the media agenda. • Laboratory Study (1982) • Iyengar, Peters, Kinder • Participants who viewed certain stories considered the issue more significant than those who did not see the stories.
Research Tradition: Phase 3- Contingent Factors • 1976 Candidate Study (1981) • Weaver, Graber, McCombs, and Eyal • Contingent factors found to affect the agenda-setting process: • Voters’ occupations • Education levels • Geographic locations
Research Tradition: Phase 4- Who Sets the Media Agenda • Media Agenda Sources (1991) • Shoemaker and Reese • Many influences create the media agenda each day: • Sociological factors related to the news organization and other organizations • Ideological concerns • Individual differences among reporters and editors • Routine of media work
Recent Research and Future Trends • 3 types of studies that are part of agenda-setting research: • Media agenda setting • Public agenda setting • Policy agenda setting • News sources that set media agenda • The president’s issue agenda strongly influenced the media agenda • Verify the causal direction of agenda setting
Agenda-Setting as a Theory • McCombs and Shaw • Steady historical growth of literature on agenda-setting research • Ability to integrate several communication research sub fields under a single theoretical umbrella • Continuing ability to generate new research problems
Agenda-Setting: Not a Theory • Kosicki • Lacks agreement between conceptual and operational definitions among researchers • Ambiguous methodology • Insufficient theory and lack of specification