Class Notes...

Questions to be considered from the Maxwell reading and will be collected (typed out):

1. What is an Agenda?

a. Agenda, in this article, is “defined abstractly by a set of objects.” This is where we pick certain things about a topic to highlight to make people think about certain things in a certain light. For instance, we might have crime as an agenda, but instead of focusing of the declining crime rate, we might look at stolen identity and think that crime is getting worse.

b. A list of priorities that we should think about

c. A formal list of things to be done in a particual order

d. An underlying personal viewpoint or bias.

e. Therefore, to set the agenda means:

i. To be the major influence or force affecting something

1. For example, the media

2. Define Agenda Setting

a. Agenda setting is a theory “focused on the salience of objects, usually public issues, but sometimes other objects.” For the purpose of this class, we’re looking at what issues or objects are important in this upcoming election. This theory suggests that the media tells us not only WHAT to think about, but also HOW to think about it.

b. A list of priorities that we should think about decided by the news media.

c. Presumes that the media doesn’t tell us what to think (as did the Bullet” theory)

d. The media can be successful in telling us what to think about

i. This is also known as Agenda-setting’s first level.

e. How important is Mad Cow Disease? Well, it was really important in 2000—but we don’t really think it is important…

f. The tsunami received more help than the earthquake in Pakistan

g. Ford went down two years because of the tires fiasco. Bridgestone/Firestone

3. Define salience

a. Salience is defined by Merriam-Webster as a striking or point or feature. For example, the election might be a newsworthy issue, but we’re focusing on Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter. The media made it so that that object, her daughter’s pregnancy, was salient. He says that salience is identified with three dimensions of this concept: attention, prominence and valence.

b. Early attention was on the transfer of salience from the news media to the public

i. Salience: the quality of being particularly important.

c. Early studies (McCombs & Shaw, aka the Chapel Hill Study, 1972) therefore was concerned with determining what issues were important to the public and did the news media have anything to do with this public “agenda”

d. It is important to remember that the media landscape in 1972 did not include the multi-channel world of Cable and Satellite and the “new media” channels introduced by the internet.

e. The definition of ‘news’ today is different than in 1972.

f. There are like 10 news companies.

g. WHO OWNS

4. What does the author mean by the assumptions that behavioral changes which have led to fragmented audiences suggest an end to agenda-setting?

a. He talks about the internet, and the fact that people are looking at things that matter to them. Before, we all got our news from newspapers and the 6 o’clock news. Now, with blogs and specialized news sites, we aren’t necessarily married to those media sources. We’ve, thus, fragmented ourselves because we all have different things that we care about, rather than letting the media lead us to believe that we care about other things.

b. Behavioral changes which have led to fragmented audiences suggest an end to agenda-setting as it has been understood.

i. Heterogeneity (diversity) is a prime culprit, in difference to the highly redundant news presentations of the past

ii. The Chapel Hill study, for example, founda +0.71 median correlation of similarity among nine news media agenda

c. The central question remains: regardless how many channels there are available, what is their frequence of use?

i. H1: Since web access allows large numbers of people to visit many differenct sites for information, audiences have become highly fragmented.

1. However, even with the suggested growth, the top five online newspapers account for the 41.4 percent of all…

ii. H2: agendas in the online world are highly divergent and not highly redundant as is the assumption with traditional media.

5. What is an “object” according the author?

a. He says that “the term ‘object’ is used here in the same way that social psychologists use phrase ‘attitude object’ to designate the thing that an individual has an attitude or opinion about.”

b. The salience of objects

i. Objects designate things (attributes) that individuals have an attitude or opinion about.

ii. Agendas are defined by a set of objects

1. Objects have attributes

a. Attributes are characteristics or traits that describe them

c.

6. What is agenda setting’s Second Level?

a. The first level is telling us what to think about.

b. The second level of agenda setting claims that not only can the media tell us what to think about, but also HOW to think about it. They say, you should think about the economy—but you should think about it in terms of our leading mortgage leaders are failing. This level involves both attributes and frames.

7. What is Framing?

a. The author writes that “A frame is an attribute of the object under consideration because it describes the object.” The author gives the example of a situation in Texas in the 1990s when intensive crime coverage was happening, and was generating a high level of public concern, because the media was framing in a way that made it seem urgent.

8. “Orientation” is defined by what concepts?

a. It is defined by relevance and uncertainty. If it is relevant and your uncertain, then you will be more prone to be swayed. If it isn’t relevant and your uncertain, then it doesn’t matter. If it’s relevant, but your certain, then it’ll be harder to sway.

List some newsworthy items

· Hurricane Ike

· Hurricane Gustav

· Gas prices

· Decline of our financial institutions

· Lehman brothers

· Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

· The US election

· War in Iraq

· French election

· Preliminary rounds of world cup

· Fraternities

· West Nile Virus

· Fashion Week in New York

· Pittsburgh Pens Pre-Season

· Issue

The first level is telling you what to think about. 1938, Mars is attacking Earth. It was at this time that we thought that the media are telling us what to think. Then in the 1940s, we start seeing propaganda from Germany. What happens, back then, this is all we hear. Now, we have many different ways of getting our information. You’re going to call, text, get online… what to think is no longer substantiated.

West Nile Virus was never eradicated. SARS never eradicated. We have a funnel. Everything that might be important, goes through the funnel, and the media spits it out. Which one is the most important thing…

Classes top 5

1. Obama August $$

2. Palin yes to oil drilling (ANWR)

3. Palin’s Gibson interview

4. Obama lowered polls

5. Popular of Obama in other countries