The agenda setting theory proposes that mass media has the ability to influence the salience of topics in the public mind by choosing what to report on and how prominently. It was introduced in 1972 and found that the amount of media coverage on an issue correlated with how important the public perceived that issue to be. The theory explains how media, public, policy, and corporate agendas can each set priorities for different audiences. It is useful for understanding political campaigns, business reputation, and public opinion formation but may oversimplify media effects.

1. Agenda Setting Theory
The power of media to push people
into specific kind of thinking is called
agenda setting.

2. Cont…
• Bernard Cohen said “media may not be
successful in telling its what to think but it is
stunningly(surprising,shocking) successful in
telling its audience what to think about”.
• Theory says that mass news media have a
larger influence on audience by their choice of
what stories to consider newsworthy and how
much prominence and space to give them.

3. Foundation
• This theory was introduced in 1972 by Maxwell
McCombs and Donald Shaw in their ground
breaking study of the role of the media in 1968
presidential campaign in Chapel Hill,North
Carolina.
• The theory explains the correlation between the
rate at which media covers a story and the
extent that people think that this story is
impartant.

4. Important Aspects of Theory
• The agenda setting function has multiple
components.
• Media agenda-issues discussed in media
(newspaper,television,radio)
• Public agenda-issues discussed and personally
relevant to members of the public.
• Policy agenda-issues that policy makers
consider important(legislators)
• Corporate agenda-issues that big bussiness and
corporations consider important(corporate)

5. Characteristics
• Need for Orientation:Weaver 1977 suggested that
individuals vary on their need for orientation. Need for
orientation is combination of individuals’ interest in the
topic and uncertainty about the topic.
• Issue Obtrusiveness:Zuker 1978 suggested that an issue
is obtrusive if most of the members of the public have
had direct contact with it and less obtrusive if audience
members have not direct experience. This means that
agenda setting results should be stronger for unobtrusive
issue because members must rely on media for
information on these topics(Miller 2005)

6. Usage of Theory
• Political advertising
• Political campaign and debate
• Business news and corporate reputation
• Business influence on federal policy
• Legal systems, trails
• Role of groups, audience control, publis opinion
• Public relations

7. Strengths of the theory
• It has explanatory power because it explains
why most people prioritize the same issue as
important.
• It has predictive power because it predicts that if
people are exposed to the same media, they will
feel same issues are important.
• It can be proven false. If people aren’t exposed
to the same media, they won’t feel the same
issues are important.

8. Cont…
• It has heuristic ability. It has produced 350 other
researches.
• Its meta-theoretical assumption are balanced on
the scientific side.
• It lays groundwork for future research.
• It has organizing power because it helps
organize knowledge of media effects.

9. Limitations
• Media users may not be ideal as the
theory assumes.
• For people who have made up their minds,
the effects are weakened.
• News media cannot create problems, they
may only alter the awareness and
importance people attach to an issue.