Yet, who decides which events are the most important? Of the many happenings and issues in the world, who is the gatekeeper of the news?
Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw addressed this concept in their agenda-setting theory. Agenda-setting indicates that media outlets act as gatekeepers, choosing the material that people should think about in their daily lives, selecting what is most significant information for the average Joe Citizen to know.
Four Visions of Agenda-Setting Theory
McCombs outlined four “visions” of the agenda-setting theory for journalism:
- Professional detachment
- Targeted involvement
- Boosterism
- A point of transition.
The vision of professional detachment makes agenda-setting a by-product of journalism, emphasizing the journalist’s role of reporting relevant, significant news as opposed to deliberately attempting to give one news item prominence over another. This is a passive method of agenda-setting.
Targeted involvement addresses journalists deliberately seeking to bring an issue to public attention, particularly through investigative journalism and editorials.
However, targeted involvement is occasional, happening only when an event or issue occurs that a journalist feels is strongly newsworthy. Essentially, it targets one instance or problem, such as the recent coverage of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. This vision falls within the realm of watchdog journalism.
Boosterism is essentially “cheerleading” by a news outlet, aiming coverage toward the publicity spectrum instead of covering an item strictly for its community interest.
The final vision, a point of transition, refers to continuous pro-active agenda-setting. This occurs when the media deliberately creates a forward push of news items with the goal of generating high levels of public interest and perceived importance.
Unlike targeted involvement, which revolves around one idea or issue, point of transition intentionally aims to set the full public agenda on all issues, not just one.
Media Attention and Perceived Importance/Public Opinion
Even though the media does not force an opinion upon people, a positive relationship exists between news coverage and the formation of public opinion. This is largely because news outlets provide people with the knowledge they need in order to have informed opinions.
Nevertheless, news outlets set the agenda without feeding consumers a packaged opinion on the material. Agenda-setting theory suggests that the news does not tell people what to think, but rather tells people what to think about.
The frequency and patterns of a story’s coverage influence how much importance individuals attribute to a particular news item.
Since June 2008, CNN’s Nancy Grace has covered the story of a missing child, Caylee Anthony. The frequency of this story – indeed, its year-long airing – has given it prominence among other news stories even though thousands of children go missing each year from homes in the United States.
Similarly, the amount of coverage given to political candidates shapes voter opinions. In the course of their study, McCombs and Shaw found that the majority of people do not have to actively seek information during political campaigns because the news media have already set the agenda.
The extensive amount of information that voters receive sends them a clear message under agenda-setting theory: these are the important candidates, these are the important issues, and this is what you should be considering at the polls.
In the 2008 presidential election, the news media inundated consumers’ lives with information about the two primary candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. American citizens were free to research third party candidates, but because the heaviest news emphasis rested upon the Republican and Democratic candidates, few consumers conducted further investigation. The news media essentially told consumers who the important candidates and what the most important issues were.
However, stories that are not frequently published can still gain prominence by their style. A 96-point headline on a newspaper’s front page may accompany a story that is covered only once, yet the size of the headline or the placement of the story gives it prominence.
Agenda-Setting: A One-Way Street
The amount of media attention that a particular topic receives has a correlation to its perceived importance in society. However, an item of perceived importance on the public’s agenda does not necessarily always find its way into the media’s agenda.
Among salient issues examined in a study by Tan and Weaver, the public was successful in moving only one issue onto the news agenda after three years’ of effort to gain media attention. Essentially, the media can set the agenda for the public far easier than the public can set the agenda for the media.
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