Media Skills 2014: Week 2

1. Media Skills 2014!
Week 2: Understanding Media Power
!
Dr Kane Hopkins

5. The purpose of media is to educate,
inform and entertain.

6. The Media Environment
• The news media are key players in the political process;
“used to help position a person, event, issue, organisation or
industry within the context of public life” (Johnston, 2007, p.
11)
• But the media don’t simply “reflect” reality — events are
selected and shaped through news processes
• Successful media relations/skills therefore relies on your
ability to “tap into” the media radar and agenda

7. Agenda setting argues that the media
does not tell us what to think, but what
to think about.

9. The Power of Agenda-Setting
• Research shows the media have the ability to change public
opinion and influence behaviour
• But our reading on audiences has also shown us that
receivers “use” media in their own ways
• The media’s power therefore lies in their ability to set and
frame the news agenda
• “We judge as important what the media judge as
important” (McCombs & Shaw, 2003, p.390)

10. Which media?
• What news organisation/s do you think are the most powerful
in terms of setting the news agenda in New Zealand?
• Consider size of audience, influence, prestige, and context

11. Agenda-setting + Framing
The media may not only tell us what to think about, they
also may tell us how and what to think about it, and
perhaps even what to do about it.
McCoombs & Shaw, p.398
!
• Therefore, how media “frame” news is another source of
potential power

12. Framing
• Once a topic is selected as news, the second level of
agenda-setting occurs when the media emphasise certain
aspects of the story, encouraging us to interpret the
information in a particular way
• Entman (2000) says frames “promote a particular problem
definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or
treatment recommendation” (quoted in Tilley, 2005, p.149)
• Power of framing lies in what it draws attention to, and what
is left out

15. Media Power and Media Relations/Skills
• In an organisational context, media relations deals
proactively (without media prompting) and reactively
(following a media prompt) with the opportunities and risks of
media power
• The aim is to secure media coverage that actually reaches
your intended audience, for this has the potential power to
impact on their views and actions
• (…and news media coverage is generally regarded by
audiences as more independent and trustworthy than paid
advertising!)

16. Implication of Framing for Media Skills
• When seeking media publicity, you want to “frame” your
information in a way that best suits you/your organisation
• This means selecting and emphasising you or your
organisation’s “take” or interpretation on the subject
• Do this through your choice of media release headline,
introduction, spokespeople, order of information, etc.
• When choosing to respond to negative media coverage of
you or your organisation, it may be more constructive to offer
an alternative “frame” of interpretation, and/or use a different
medium.

17. Summary
• The media are powerful, but audiences are their own people,
with the ability to resist media agenda-setting and framing
• The media are powerful, but as a media skills practitioner,
knowing how that power works and what types of response
are open to you can help you respond in a constructive way
(e.g. “counter-framing”, using direct media such as Internet
to avoid media editing and framing)
• Ethical ‘best practice’ and critical theory also encourages
you to reflect on your/your organisation’s “power”