Agenda-setting theory explains the media's power to influence public perceptions of what issues are important, originally developed by McCombs and Shaw during the 1968 U.S. presidential election. The theory highlights various applications, including political campaigns and commercial branding, asserting that media coverage shapes public awareness and concern for specific topics. Key concepts include public agenda, media agenda, and the distinction between framing and priming, while critiques address the complexity and passive audience assumptions associated with the theory.

1. AGENDA SETTING
THEORY
By
Muhammad Ahmad Badar

2. Agenda Setting Function
Theory
 Agenda-setting theory describes the "ability (of the news media) to
influence the importance placed on the topics of the general public
agenda". With agenda setting being a science theory, it conjointly
makes an attempt to create predictions.
 Agenda-setting theory was formally developed by grievous bodily
harm McCombs and Donald Shaw during a study on the 1968
Yankee presidential election. within the 1968 "Chapel Hill study",
McCombs and Shaw incontestable a powerful coefficient of
correlation (r > .9) between what a hundred residents of town, North
geographic area thought was the foremost vital election issue and
what the native and national journalism reported was the foremost
vital issue
 The concept of agenda setting was launched by McCombs and Shaw
during the 1968 presidential election in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
They examined Lippmann's idea of construction of the pictures in our

3. Agenda Setting Function
Theory
 A relatively unknown scholar named G. Ray Funkhouser
performed a study highly similar to McCombs and Shaw's
around the same time the authors were formalizing the
theory.[8] All three scholars – McCombs, Shaw, and
Funkhouser – even presented their findings at the same
academic conference. Funkhouser's article was published later
than McCombs and Shaw's, and Funkhouser doesn't receive as
much credit as McCombs and Shaw for discovering agenda
setting. According to Everett Rogers, there are two main
reasons for this.[6] First, Funkhouser didn't formally name the
theory. Second, Funkhouser didn't pursue his research much
past the initial article. Rogers also suggests that Funkhouser
was geographically isolated at Stanford, cut off from interested
researchers, whereas McCombs and Shaw had got other

4. History and Orientation
 Agenda setting describes a very powerful influence of the
media – the ability to tell us what issues are important. As far
back as 1922, the newspaper columnist Walter Lippman was
concerned that the media had the power to present images to
the public. McCombs and Shaw investigated presidential
campaigns in 1968, 1972 and 1976.
 In the research done in 1968 they focused on two elements:
awareness and information. Investigating the agenda-setting
function of the mass media, they attempted to assess the
relationship between what voters in one community said were
important issues and the actual content of the media messages
used during the campaign. McCombs and Shaw concluded that
the mass media exerted a significant influence on what voters
considered to be the major issues of the campaign.

5. Types of Agenda Setting
 Roger and Dearing (1988) identify three types of agenda setting
 Public agenda setting:
In which the public's agenda is the dependent variable, the
traditional hypothesis
 Media agenda setting:
In which the media's agenda is treated as the dependent variable
agenda budding
 Policy agenda setting:
In which elite policy makers' agendas are treated as the
dependent variable political agenda setting.

6. Conceptual Model

7. Applications
 Twitter application:
Over the last few years, the increase in social media has had a
direct effect on political campaigns particularly Twitter. Its unique
platform allows users to showcase their political opinion without
functioning two directions. It is currently being viewed as a
platform for political advancement. Before the use of Twitter,
political candidates were using blogs and websites to portray their
message and to gain more attention and popularity among their
followers. Some of the most followed users on Twitter are past
and current Presidents of the United States and other political
figures. In terms of retweets, politicians and political parties have
been labeled "influentials" on Twitter. Twitter is being used as a
resource to gather information, reach a larger audience and
engagement, stay up to date with current social and political
issues, and to achieve the agenda building role.

8. Applications
 Non-political application:
McCombs and Shaw originally established agenda-setting within
the context of a presidential election. Many subsequent studies
have looked at agenda setting in the context of an election or in
otherwise political contexts. However, more recently scholars
have been studying agenda setting in the context of brand
community. A brand is defined as what resides in the minds of
individuals about a product or service. Brand community is
described as a "specialized, non-geographically bound community
based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a
brand." Under these definitions more than just material products
can qualify as a brand, political candidates or even celebrities
could be viewed as a brand as well. The theory can also be
applied to commercial advertising, business news and corporate
reputation, business influence on federal policy, legal systems,

9. Applications
 Agenda-setting in business communication:
The central theoretical idea of agenda-setting theory fits well in
the world of business communication as well as political
communication setting. "In the case of corporate reputations, only
the operational definitions of the objects and attributes on these
agendas are changed to frame five key theoretical propositions
about the influence of news coverage on corporate reputations
among the public. This presentation of five basic propositions
offers a theoretical roadmap for systematic empirical research into
the influence of the mass media on corporate reputations"
 Agenda-setting in advertising:
Ghorpade demonstrated media's agenda-setting can "go beyond
the transfer of silence to the effect of intended behavior" and is
thus relevant to advertising.

10. Applications
 Agenda-setting in interpersonal
communication:
Although agenda-setting theory is related to mass communication
theory, it can be applied to interpersonal communication as well.
Yang and Stone investigated people who prefer to interpersonal
communication have the same agenda as others who rely on
mass media. According to them, the public agenda suggested by
media can flow through interpersonal communication as well.
 Agenda-setting in crime:
Agenda-setting can be connected to cultivation theory. Lowry et
al. conducted a longitudinal study and revealed that network
television news covering crimes often made the public not only

11. Applications
 Agenda-setting in health communication:
Ogata Jones, Denham and Springston (2006) studied the mass
and interpersonal communication on breast cancer screening
practice and found that mass media is essential in "setting an
agenda for proactive health behaviors".
Women who were directly or indirectly exposed to news articles
about breast cancer tended to conduct more frequent screenings
than those hadn't read such articles.

12. Key terms for Agenda Setting
theory
 Media agenda:
Pattern of news coverage across major print and broadcast media
that is measured by the length of a story and how many times it
appears.
 Public agenda:
The most important public issues as measured by public opinion
surveys.
 Gatekeepers:
People who decide and control how the news being publicized
should be said and portrayed.
 Salience:
The fact that if a particular news is everywhere, it makes it seem

13. Key terms for Agenda Setting
theory
 Priming:
Much attention in agenda-setting research, in the 80’s, was
focused on the concept of priming. This concept was derived from
the cognitive psychological concept of priming. Priming refers to
enhancing the effects of the media by offering the audience a prior
context – a context that will be used to interpret subsequent
communication.
The media serve to provide the audience with standards and
frames of reference. Agenda-setting refers mainly to the
importance of an issue; priming tells us whether something is
good or bad, whether it is communicated effectively, etc. The
media have primed the audience about what a news program
looks like, what a credible person looks like, etc.

14. Key terms for Agenda Setting
theory
 Framing:
The concept of framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but
expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand
rather than on a particular topic. The basis of framing theory is that the
media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a
field of meaning. Framing is an important topic since it can have a big
influence and therefore the concept of framing expanded to
organizations as well.
The media draws the public attention to certain topics, it decides where
people think about, the journalists select the topics. This is the original
agenda setting ‘thought’. In news items occurs more than only bringing
up certain topics. The way in which the news is brought, the frame in
which the news is presented, is also a choice made by journalists.
Thus, a frame refers to the way media and media gatekeepers organize
and present the events and issues they cover, and the way audiences
interpret what they are provided. Frames are abstract notions that serve
to organize or structure social meanings. Frames influence the
perception of the news of the audience, this form of agenda-setting not

15. Core Assumptions and
Statements:
Core: Agenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and
concern of salient issues by the news media. Two basis
assumptions underlie most research on agenda-setting: (1) the
press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it;
(2) media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the
public to perceive those issues as more important than other
issues. One of the most critical aspects in the concept of an
agenda-setting role of mass communication is the time frame for
this phenomenon. In addition, different media have different
agenda-setting potential. Agenda-setting theory seems quite
appropriate to help us understand the pervasive role of the media
(for example on political communication systems).
Statement: Bernard Cohen (1963) stated: “The press 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

16. Core Assumptions and
Statements:
Example:
McCombs and Shaw focused on the two elements: awareness
and information. Investigating the agenda-setting function of the
mass media in the 1968 presidential campaign, they attempted to
assess the relationship between what voters in one community
said were important issues and the actual content of media
messages used during the campaign. McCombs and Shaw
concluded that the mass media exerted a significant influence on
what voters considered to be the major issues of the campaign.

17. CRITIQUES
Various critiques have been made of agenda-setting theory:
 Agenda setting is an inherently causal theory, but few studies
establish the hypothesized temporal order (the media should
set the public's agenda).
 The measurement of the dependent variable was originally
conceptualized as the public's perceived issue "salience", but
subsequent studies have conceptualized the dependent
variable as awareness, attention, or concern, leading to
differing outcomes.
 Studies tend to aggregate media content categories and public
responses into very broad categories, resulting in inflated
correlation coefficients.
 The theory seemed to imply that the audience takes generally
passive position. However, the public is not as passive as the
theory assumed. Theorist John Fiske has challenged the view
of a passive audience.

18. Conclusion
Media agenda setting play the most important role in making sure
that the public is informed of what is happening around then;
Agenda-setting studies typically show variability in the correlation
between media and public agenda. To explain differences in the
correlation, McCombs and colleagues created the concept of
need for orientation, which describes individual differences in the
desire for orienting cues and background information.
Two concepts: relevance and uncertainty, define an individuals
need for orientation. Relevance suggests that an individual will not
seek news media information if an issue is not personally relevant.
Hence, if relevance is low, people will feel the need for less
orientation. There are many issues in our country that are just not
relevant to people, because they do not affect us. Many news
organizations attempt to frame issues in a way that attempts to

19. Conclusion
 This is their way of keeping their viewership/readership high.
Level of uncertainty is the second defining condition of need for
orientation. Frequently, individuals already have all the
reformation that they desire about a topic. Their degree of
uncertainty is low. When issues are of high personal relevance
and uncertainty low, the need to monitor any changes in those
issues will be present and there will be a moderate the need for
orientation. If at any point in time viewers/readers have high
relevance and high uncertainty about any type of
issue/event/election campaign there was a high need for
orientation.

20. THANK YOU
ANY QUESTIONS?