1.
An Overview of Agenda Setting Theory in Mass
Communications
▪ Leading Discussion
▪ Fardin Ayar, Ph.D. Student

2.
Contents
1
Introduction and history of the agenda setting theory
2
3
4
5
Types of agenda setting
Distinctive aspect week of agenda setting theory
The core concepts of agenda-setting
Agenda setting and media content effect

3.
Contents
6
Agenda setting and psychology orientation
7
Why agenda setting occurs?
8
Agenda setting and social media civic conversation
9
Agenda setting and civic community balance
10 Discussion proposed questions

4.
▪ Agenda-setting is commonly understood as a model that links the
salience or priority of Despite these reservations about priming
reissues in the media with the priorities of the search, in contrast to
agenda-setting, it is often public (Kosicki, 1993).
▪ Agenda setting is the process by which problems and alternative
solutions gain or lose public attention and the attention of elected
officials (Birkland 1997, 2006). Agenda setting is a fluid, dynamic
process in which problem, policy, and political streams couple and
uncouple in an effort to link problems to solutions.
What is agenda setting – Introduction

5.
▪ Agenda Setting Theory originated in Walter Lippmann’s 1922 classic,
Public Opinion. In the first chapter, Lippmann establishes the principal
connection between world events and the images in the public mind
(Lippmann, 1922). In 1963, Bernard Cohen noted that the media “may
not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but
it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.
▪ As acknowledged by Matsaganis and Payne (2005), agenda setting
theory is vastly developed in which more than 350 researches were
done after McCombs and Shaw‟s findings in 1972.
History of agenda setting theory

6.
▪ The beginning of agenda setting theory can be traced as far as 1922, when Walter
Lippmann expresses his concern on the vital role that mass media can do in
influencing the setting of certain image on the public's mind (Lippmann, 1922: 9-
16).
▪ The agenda setting theory is a theory that discusses on how the mass media
influences in making a certain issue as a public agenda. The public agenda is the
main focus or prime issue which the members of the society or public concern
about.
▪ The agenda setting theory begins as an explanation on how the mass media
affects to change the pattern in political behavior during elections (Cohen: 1963).
Agenda setting history

7.
▪ Continuously, the agenda setting theory stands as important
theory not only on mass communication, but extends to
other related social science studies such as political
communication (Reese: 1991).
▪ Agenda setting theory is an important theory in mass
communication. The agenda setting of mass media can be
derived from the public agenda. The said agenda setting can
also be set up through government's policy or by
politicians.
Agenda setting and social science

8.
▪ There are three basic types of agenda setting according to Everett Rogers and J.W. Dearing (1988):
Types of agenda setting
picture

9.
Types of agenda setting theory
Public agenda setting focuses on the audience’s
agenda
Media agenda setting focuses on the influence of the
mass media on the audience
Policy agenda setting, which has been mostly
ignored by Rogers and Dearing (1988), deals with
how media and public agendas might influence the
decisions of elite policy makers.

10.
Basic agenda setting
Attribute agenda setting
Network agenda setting
Central agenda-setting
Consequences of agenda-setting
Origins of media agenda-setting
Media civic agendas
Distinctive aspect week of agenda setting theory

11.
Discussion questions
• Can we think of specific examples of agenda setting from our countries?
(issue + who made it salient + how it’s being framed)
Question#1
• How can agenda setting permeate highly personalized platforms like YouTube
and TikTok? Can someone truly live in an isolated media landscape heavily
divorced from reality?
Question #2

12.
Discussion questions
• In essence, the recent reading topics around theories and concepts have been built on the
notion of the importance of news media, mass media, and mainstream media and how they
can be used to influence the public. However, these studies are also emphasizing the dangers
of behind fully grasping these forms of “controlling” the media and public if this knowledge
falls into the wrong hands. Isn’t it contradictory? In this sense, is it really a good idea to
reveal how the public opinion can be manipulated at will?
Question#3
• Shaw and Martin’s study (social consensus) overlaps with the cultivation theory. The NFO
factor coincides with the motivational factors of knowledge gap. Likewise, the selective
perception concept had been introduced in previous readings. Many of the most commonly
used communication theories and foundational concepts are interconnected so how do we
know when we are using the “correct” theories and concepts to examine certain research? Or
is it up to the reader’s discretion such as with Lippmann’s Public Opinion piece?
Question#4

13.
Agenda setting – short video session1

14.
▪ The comparison of the media agenda with
the public agenda has been
operationalized in four different
categories. The researchers of the agenda-
setting theory call these kinds of designs
as the Acapulco typology (McCombs,
1981).
▪ This typology was first presented at the
International Communication Association
convention in Acapulco, Mexico.
Agenda setting and Acapulco typology
Compares the news coverage for a set of major issues to the aggregate
public agenda.
The second type also examines the media agenda
Determines the relationship between the media coverage of a single
issue and the public opinion about this issue over a period of time.
Investigates the relationship between the media coverage of a single
issue and the salience of that issue on an individual agenda.

15.
▪ All of these facets are appropriate venues for research guided by agenda-setting theory, both
now and in the future. The core concepts of agenda-setting theory are an.
The core concepts of agenda-setting
Object agenda Attribute agenda
Transfer of salience
between pairs of
agendas

16.
▪ Most media agenda-setting research carried out since
McCombs’ and Shaw’s study of the 1968 U.S. presidential
election has tested the assertion that media emphasis on certain
issues results in increased public concern over these issues.’ But
there has been very little systematic study of the underlying
assumption that the media set the public agenda of issues by
filtering and shaping reality rather than by simply reflecting.
Who sets the media agenda?

17.
▪ Shoemaker 1 and Riz 2 (1991) have proposed five main categories of effects on media content,
respectively:
Agenda setting and media content effect
Effects caused by individual media workers
Effects of media procedures
Organizational influences on content
The effect and influence of non-media organizations on content
Ideological effect (Sorin and Tankard, 2001: 353-4).

18.
▪ The concept of need for orientation (NFO) was created more than 40 years ago at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the early 1970s by Maxwell McCombs and
David Weaver, and was first introduced to a wider academic audience in a paper presented
at the April 1973 annual meeting of the International Communication Association (ICA) in
Montreal, Canada.
Agenda setting and psychology orientation

19.
▪ McCombs and Weaver (1973) defined need for orientation as a combination of relevance and
uncertainty, such that low levels of relevance led directly to low levels of NFO, a high level of
relevance coupled with low uncertainty led to a moderate level of NFO, and a high level of
relevance coupled with high uncertainty led to a high level of NFO. They operationally defined
political relevance in terms of interest in, and discussion of, the 1972 presidential campaign and
political uncertainty in terms of the consistency of voting record, strength of political party
identification, and degree of certainty about choice of presidential candidate.
Agenda setting and psychology orientation

20.
▪ In a comprehensive analysis of the psychology of agenda-setting effects, McCombs and Stroud
(2014) conclude that NFO is only one part of the answer to the question of why agenda setting
occurs. They conclude that those who use media more passively have lower levels of NFO than
those actively using media, and those with ‘‘moderate-active’’ NFO (high relevance and low
uncertainty) use partisan media more than those with a high level of NFO.
▪ To conclude, NFO and agenda-setting research have been elaborated and expanded since the
studies of the early 1970s. It’s now clear that there are conceptual and practical benefits to
expanding NFO to at least four different categories instead of the original three, and that the
effects of NFO vary depending on which type of media are analyzed.
Why agenda setting occurs

21.
Orientation model

22.
Agenda setting – short video session2

23.
▪ The prioritized agenda is a stratified sample of the broader civic conversation on
public affairs. A much larger sample of this civic conversation is the social media
conversation taking place on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and numerous other
channels. Of course, much of social media conversation is focused on personal
interests and activities and has little to do with public affairs (Kelly, 2009).
▪ Some of the messages that define the social media issue agenda originate in
citizens’ longstanding–and often passionate–interest in particular issues. Hot
button issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and regulation of guns immediately
come to mind, but by and large the news media agenda play little part in
stimulating citizens to converse about these topics on social media.
Agenda setting and social media civic conversation

24.
Open questions for discussion
To what extent are the media able to transfer the salience of
an integrated picture?
How to manage public opinion trough media agenda?
What role does the new media agenda play in launching
elections, political campaigns and shaped social
movements?

25.
▪ A primary source of the messages that make up the
public issue conversation on social media are the news
events of the day, which call attention to a wide variety
of topics and issues. Citizens then use the social media to
comment, distribute information or seek additional
information on these topics and issues (Meraz, 2013;
Vargo et al., 2014).
Social media civic conversation

26.
▪ The civic agenda is an evolving set of priorities around which a social or political system exists. If there
is a media message and no audience, there is no agenda setting. Since the rediscovery of a powerful
media in the 1960s and 1970s, we have become increasingly aware of the role audiences play in selecting
among media agendas. The available media in the marketplace have exploded. Some of us read
newspapers on the Web, find or create groups of similar interest on Facebook or Twitter, and monitor
news channels of many types throughout our day.
▪ Agenda-setting correlations measure the level of agreement between a medium and audience. If there is
no agreement on the basic issues, there can not be a stable civic community unless police or military
forces maintain order. If there is a stable society there is a modicum of agreement among lea ders,
institutions, and citizens.
Agenda setting and civic community balance

27.
▪ The agenda-setting role of the news media is not limited to focusing public attention on a
particular set of issues, but also influences our understanding and perspective on the topics in
the news. This becomes clear when we think about the concept of an agenda in abstract terms.
In most agenda-setting research, these objects are public issues, but they also could be public
figures, or generations, countries or anything else that is the focus of attention.
▪ Just as objects vary in salience, so do the attributes of each object as well. Thus, for each object
there also is an agenda of attributes, which constitutes an important part of what journalists and,
subsequently, members of the public have in mind when they think and talk about news objects.
Attribute agenda setting effects

28.
▪ The agenda-setting role of the mass media converges with many other paradigms in the
communication field, including framing, priming, gatekeeping, cultivation and the spiral of silence.
The similarities and differences between agenda setting and framing are currently one of the most
discussed of these theoretical connections. A frequently cited definition of framing states that a
media frame is a “central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests
what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion and elaboration” (Tankard et al.,
1991, p. 3).
▪ The pattern of news coverage that defines the media’s agenda results from exchanges with sources,
daily interactions among news organizations themselves, and journalism’s norms and traditions.
Agenda setting and framing

29.
▪ Even as the explosive growth and use of the Internet has reached into more and more lives, and scholarly
concepts have been influenced by the “high-tech” explosion, so too has this trend, coupled with the
public’s diminished reliance on traditional media, affected the theory of agenda setting itself. The
question being asked more and more is this: Is the agenda setting process as relevant and applicable to the
Internet as it is and was for traditional media?
▪ Until recently, researchers on agenda-setting and Internet media have for the most part defined for
purposes of study Internet media as websites, bulletin boards or online discussion groups. These same
scholars have come to realize that Internet media encompass much more, as publishing on the Internet
has been simplified, and individuals can now easily put information online.
Agenda setting in the internet age

30.
▪ The mass media can influence on the opinions of the media audiences or public at large. Such
can be done through agenda setting of the mass media on a certain particular issue or agenda.
The faster the device used in delivery of information, more influential the mass media.
▪ The salience of issues and other topics on the media agenda also influences observable
behavior. The agenda setting effects of the mass media also have significant implications
beyond the pictures created in people’s heads.
▪ However, the advent of Internet media has popularized a hybrid media form that includes
elements of participatory journalism (Lasica, 2003) and those of other communication models,
such as the personal diary (Herring, Scheidt, Wright & Bonus, 2005).
Conclusion

31.
1. Maxwell E. McCombs, Donald L. Shaw & David H. Weaver. (2014). New Directions in Agenda-Setting Theory and Research.
University of Texas at Austin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & Indiana University – Bloomington.
2. MD ABU NASER. (2020). Relevance and Challenges of the Agenda-Setting Theory in the Changed Media Landscape. California
State University, Bakersfield. American Communication Journal.
3. Nor Razinah Binti Mohd Zain. (2014). Agenda setting theory. International Islamic university Malaysia.
4. Amber M. Freeland. (2012). An Overview of Agenda Setting Theory in Mass Communications. University of North Texas.
5. Michael P Levine & Michael P Levine. (2009). Media effect: Advance theory in research. University of Michigan & Kenyon
College.
6. Maxwell Mccombs. (2009). How the news shapes our civic agenda. University of Texas at Austin.
7. Maxwell Mccombs. (2009). The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media. University of Texas at Austin.
8. McCombs, Maxwell. (2007). The Agenda-Setting Theory. Pontificia Universidad Cató
lica de Chile Santiago, Chile.
References

32.
Q. A

33.
Thanks for attention