Agenda Setting Theory

The Agenda Setting Theory explains that media controls the people on what to think about and not on telling us what to think. This theory states that the creation of what the public thinks is important.

This theory is developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1982 as a result of their study in North Carolina during the presidential election campaign and according to them, this study found a correlation between the current issues, problems and concerns of the voters and issues the media gave prominence to. During the investigation of the theory function of the mass media, that attempted to evaluate the relationship between that the voters in one community said were important issues and the content of the media messages used during the presidential campaign and they have concluded that mass media and they have concluded that the mass media exerted a significant influence on what the voters focused on to be the major issues during the campaign.

According to Maxwell and Shaw, the media influence affects the order of presentation in news reports about current events, issues in the public. The Media Priorities says what people should think about and hoy they should think about. In the research, they focused on two elements which are awareness and information.

McCombs and Shaw argued on the number of cues media uses to indicate the importance of one issue. According to this theory, media has the power to bring focus on public discussions particular on issues. For example, the heading of the newspaper- the size of the newspaper heading shows the importance of the story. The bigger the heading, the more important it is than the stories on the next pages.

The Agenda Setting Theory countered the “limited effects” school of thought, which means that our thoughts are limited on the selected exposure, attention and retention we receive. This theory shows how much power media can do to the public and also recognizing that the public was free to choose. In this theory, it explains why people with similar media exposure place importance on the same issues. However, people may think differently about the issue but most of the people feel the importance of the same issues. It has explanatory power because it explains why people prioritize the same issues as important. Secondly, it has organizing power because it organizes the existing knowledge of media effects. This theory comes from a scientific perspective, it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same on the issues and its importance.

The two basis of the assumptions underlie most research on agenda-setting. First, the press and the media do not reflect reality but they filter and reshape it as what they want us to see. Second, the media concentration on issues and subjects directs the public to perceive those issues as more important than the other issues.

McCombs increased the scope of the Agenda Setting theory to include the phenomenon ‘Framing’ where media did not only influence what we think about but also the way we think about them. The Framing phenomenon is done through selection, emphasis, exclusion and elaboration and this determines the salience of particular attributes of an issue. News reports may focus on one particular aspect of an issue or report about something in a particular way they want us to think about. Framing promotes a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and treatment recommendation.

They showed a correlation between the news stories on issues and how important the people think the issue is. Media may not only tell is what to think on but they also tell us how and what to think about it and perhaps leads us on what to do about it. Media may also affect our behaviour because media is a powerful tool to influence our society, economy, social actions, travel and etc.