Agenda-setting researchers discuss how the media shape what we think about
By Stephanie Cook (MJour'18) with an introduction by Elizabeth Skewes
2017年夏天在美国,博彩平台推荐大多数人都听说过美国枪击事件.S. 代表. 史蒂文·斯卡利斯 以及 詹姆斯喜剧的 发射.
差不多在同一时间, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to tell us that Vladimir Putin denied meddling in the 2016 election 和 that “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” Brzezinski—who had been critical of him—tried to play up to him at Mar-a-Lago. 然后是臭名昭著的“咖啡”推特.
但在这一切之中, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reopened Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to oil 和 gas exploration, 研究表明,每年都是这样, 65岁以上,在美国,有1万名孕妇.S. suffer life-threatening complications, 和 that more than 600 women die from these complications.
By 和 large, the media didn’t cover these last two stories, which led to a lack of awareness. 除非有朋友或家人遭受痛苦或死亡, how would you know that our country is in the midst of a maternity crisis? When the media is distracted, important issues can go unreported. 这种现象被称为议程设定效应, 它可能正在改变博彩平台推荐认为重要的东西.
Agenda-setting theory holds that the issues that we hear about most in the media are the ones that become important to us as citizens 和 voters.
The theory began during the 1968 presidential race between Richard Nixon 和 Hubert Humphrey, when researchers 麦克斯韦麦克白 和 唐纳德·肖 interviewed voters in Chapel Hill, 北卡罗莱纳, 和 found a strong correlation between what was being reported in the local news 和 what voters thought were the important issues of the day.
五十年后, this study is one of the most cited in all of 大众传播 history, 和 the 带来 theory has spawned hundreds of studies in a broad range of contexts. 麦克库姆斯和肖,还有大卫·韦弗, who joined them soon after the initial study—are broadly referred to as the founding fathers of 带来 theory. Their research continues to inform what we know about the impact of media coverage on people.
在夏天, CMCI Assistant Professor Chris Vargo hosted the three scholars, along with researchers from international 和 national universities, 在为期两天的会议上庆祝过去, 议程设置研究的现状与未来.
大卫·韦弗
罗伊·W. 霍华德大学名誉教授
印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校
麦克斯韦麦克白
杰西H. 琼斯传媒百年荣誉主席
德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校
唐纳德·肖
该教授
北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校
vargo在CMCI的广告系任教, 公共关系和媒体设计与McCombs坐下来, Shaw 和 Weaver to discuss how their work can be applied to the media l和scape today.
Vargo: 什么是议程设置?
韦弗: Agenda setting has to do with focusing people’s attention on certain issues or problems—not necessary telling them what to think, but what to think about—和 that’s an important effect of media that was overlooked for a long time.
Vargo: 今天还在发生. 如果你看看特朗普和他的总统任期, it’s a clear example of him being able to control the agenda on issues—on what is being talked about in the press. He certainly doesn’t have control over the way in which the issues are talked about, but he does have the ability to push an issue into the forefront of public debate.
韦弗: 并使某些问题或问题更加突出, at the expense of others that some people might consider more important.
Vargo: I think that’s an intentional tactic to divert attention from one issue to another. When something isn’t going right, it’s time to distract—to set the agenda in a new way. This effect that you really were the first to uncover 和 prove is now being used by all types of different actors. Today, the 带来 effect isn’t just a media phenomenon, it’s also a political tactic. 当你第一次研究这个的时候,你想到过这个吗?
肖: 好吧, 很容易把特朗普挑出来, but all presidents have been interested in setting agendas, 一直追溯到开国元勋. 所有领导人都想制定议程. And many of the elements of effective agenda setting were established without knowledge of what they were doing, 以社会科学的方式, 希特勒和他的政权. 他在制定议程方面非常有效. But every leader wants the issues to reflect favorably on themselves 和 their government.
麦克白: But this is not to say the public is just being programmed. For instance, the studies on the president as an agenda setter show a batting average of about .400–.500, pretty astounding in baseball, not quite so good in public opinion. In many instances it was the media setting the president’s agenda. 有时候,情况正好相反. What I particularly remember are two different studies of Ronald Reagan, 它们走向了相反的方向. Once, he was clearly the agenda setter, 和 once, the media was clearly the agenda setter.
Vargo: 自1968年以来发生了很多变化. The media l和scape has certainly become much bigger in the number of media organizations creating news content that’s consumed, 在线和离线. How do you think that changes the way agenda setting works today?
麦克白: 《博彩平台推荐》——越来越多的 华盛顿邮报—are still major agenda setters because of their influence on other media. They influence those other media because they’re the ones who can deploy dozens of reporters to cover things. They simply have the journalistic strength that very few other organizations have.
肖: 在我看来, 议程设置就是麦克斯之前提到的, 交换优先权和重要性. We’ve looked at it in a news context, but agenda setting does have all kinds of contexts. We now recognize the audience more than we did, 和 the audience has huge choice.
Vargo: Do you think that fake news can set the agenda for the country or for a specific group of people? And did fake news have 带来 power in the 2016 election?
麦克白: 我想对有些人来说是这样的. 我不认为它有广泛的影响,因为,回到, 《博彩平台推荐》 和 华盛顿邮报, 他们可能会说, “We see all these news stories out there but we’ve never heard of all these media sources. 博彩平台推荐来看看这些东西.“在大多数情况下, 它不合格, 所以他们说, “这件事永远不会在博彩平台推荐的报纸上曝光.“对一些人来说,是的,它可能会有影响. 一般来说, I think our media system’s healthy enough to push back on that, 而且越来越如此, 现在一切都公开了.
韦弗: 没有可证实的事实,议程设置能存在吗? 我想是的. 如果某些信息一遍又一遍地重复, 它们变得更加突出, 除非有一些相互矛盾的信息, 然后随着时间的推移, 人们可能会相信这一点, “是的, 这是真的.“是的,这很重要。.”