Agenda Setting Function
of Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw
By Jennifer L. Prouty
For most of us who pick up a newspaper or watch a newschannel we don't get to pick and choose what we want to learn about. I know for myself if I don't like the headline of an article I just don't read it, but if I am watching the news the only way to get around it is to change the channel. What I am describing is the agenda setting function. In other words the media only show us the material they want us to see. As stated in our textbook...the media aren't very successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about.
The media influence us in two ways.
1. Priming
2. Framing
Priming - a psychological process whereby media emphasis on particular issues not only increases the salience of those issues, but it activates in people's memories previously acquired information about those issues.
Framing- calls attention to some aspects of reality whole obscuring other elements, which might lead audiences to have different reactions.
Example....
In the early 80's the media was just coming out with information and reports on the AIDS epidemic. In fact the New York Times was the first to report on this epidemic. One of things that I feel got blown out of proportion is the fact that the media was making it look as if the virus was only affecting homosexuals. Ronald Reagan's friend Rock Hudson was killed by this epidemic. Rock tried to cover up the fact that he was gay, maybe that is because he was under the influence that he had aids because he was gay. In fact that is why today some people still believe that it is only present in gay people. What about Brian White? He wasn't gay and he acquired the HIV virus, but by a blood transfusion. It wasn't until in the late 80's that the media decided to explain to the general public what AIDS really was, how it was transmitted and who was at risk.
Story....
I had the pleasure to take saxophone lessons with a great teacher who will remain nameless I am saying this because his daughter was raped and as a result contacted the AIDS virus and past away while I was in high school. She left behind a daughter who has the HIV virus because she was conceived also as a result of the attack. My teacher is now making his granddaughter and daughter's voice be heard. He and his wife travel around Ohio trying to explain to people the truth about this epidemic. Now his daughter was not homosexual nor was the guy who attacked her, but my teacher now has the job of raising his granddaughter and teaching the community that this can happen to anyone.
Conclusion
To sum up what I am trying to get at is that the media are priming certain issues such as homosexuals and the HIV virus. They are also framing this issue in the same way. The media are only calling attention to certain issues that they want us to hear. They are concentrating on only one aspect of the entire subject instead of the whole entire area. No wonder people are assuming that AIDS is only related to homosexuals.
When dealing with the media you will come across issues that must be accepted, rejected, an have no committment to them. What I am describing is social judgement theory. Visit a link from another classmates webpage on social judgement theory.
Feel free to visit another web site on agenda setting.
Emory Griffin, "A First Look At Communication Theory," 3rd ed., The McGraw-Hill Co., USA, 1997.
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Last updated 3/08/00