McCombs and Shaw argue that the media has, "the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda," and they call this the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis. This information can be found on page 359 of chapter 28 in our textbook.
I find the agenda-setting hypothesis meaningful because I truly believe the media affects our thoughts far more than most people understand. There is so much going on around us daily, but we only know what we are exposed to. The media has the ability to filter what we are exposed to. I feel the reason our county is at war in Iraq right now is because the media portrayed all the threats of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq constantly. The media gave people an awareness that Iraq could possibly have WMD's. This led to a fear that American's are so well known for, causing our invasion into the Iraqi county.
~Tornn
3 comments:
Thanks for the interesting posting.
The media malady effect grabbed my attention. The textbook defines media malady effect as: “negative economic headlines and stories that depress consumer sentiment and leading economic indicators.” This concept is related to one of the hypotheses of the agenda-setting theory, namely the media’s ability to affect the public’s behavior and actions.
In his study, Alexander Bloj demonstrated the relationship between negative air transportation coverage in the media and airline ticket purchases and travel insurance sales. Blood and Phillips conducted another study that showed the relationship between media’s coverage of the economy and economic conditions.
The recent stock market crash and housing market debacle are obviously related to media coverage, which continually stokes anxiety.
In 2000, the media were euphoric about the Internet; stories described ordinary people who turned into billionaires overnight by starting Internet companies. This lead to a wild stock market speculative frenzy, which, then Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, termed “irrational exuberance.” The stock market collapsed in 2001 after stories surfaced about the excesses.
I find this post also interesting. I think that the media influences us in ways we do not see or understand. I think it also influences those who think that they are not paying attention. With that being said I think that the media can be used for good and for the bad. It is evident that the media is influencing our lives for the green movement. Movies such as Wall-E and autos being marketed as "green" are being used to sell things. I always feel weird in the morning when I acciently leave the TV on at night and I feel I have absourbed more information that is not useful and unnessessary through my subconcious. The media is a very powerful thing.
Agenda-setting theory emphasizes not so much how people should think but what they should think about. By choosing some stories to highlight and others to ignore, the media set the agenda for public discourse and debate. One way to move beyond the media's agenda is to seek out alternative sources of information. This has become easier with the internet--newsgroups, blogs, listservs, and discussion boards give individuals a wider variety of information sources. In addition, it's much easier to gather information from media outside the ones you're typically exposed to, such as those not in the U.S.
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