Module 2: Agenda-Setting Theory
"The media don't tell us what to think, they tell us what to think about."
Introduction
[To see the complete module for Agenda Setting, please click here: MODULE 2: AGENDA SETTING]
"Agenda setting" is a communication theory that argues that the media play a key role in defining the public agenda, because public opinion tends to pay more attention to those issues and those perspectives that are highlighted in news stories.
Agenda-setting has been of particular interest to political campaigns, because research has suggested that voters more closely follow the media's agenda than candidates' agendas. This finding has triggered discussions about which actor is the most powerful in setting the public agenda. In the last decades, politicians, economists, international institutions, NGOs and media have all struggled to impose their own "spin" on issues.
In the last years, a new dilemma for the agenda-setting theory has emerged: with social media and citizen journalism as new actors in the flow of information, is the media agenda is now being set by audiences? With more channels of participation (comment sections, blogs, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) people are more powerful than ever before.
The rise of social media and citizen journalism has updated old discussions about the role of the media in the public debates, and has added more complexity both to the mapping of flow of information and to the definition of the "public agenda."
To see the complete module for Agenda Setting, please click here:
MODULE 2: AGENDA SETTING
