Agenda Setting in Government

Agenda Setting in Government

Agenda setting is mainly the idea that is running in the public minds, whereas the media set it. It is a theory that was invented in 1972 by both Donald Shaw and Maxwell McCombs. History tells it all that the first agenda-setting is developed to study presidential elections held in America 1968 that related to issues determined by the news media and important agendas to do with residents of Chapel Hill, California. This paper discusses the importance of agenda-setting in a government in support of an example and factors considered to affect it.

However, mass media is the critical agenda-setter in the government, for it can influence the salience of themes and topics on the public agenda. No doubt that if news items are taken seriously and covered frequently, the audience considers it essential. At times agenda setting becomes a difficult task to handle, for instance, the case of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, a government official. Publishing the Newspaper resulted in discussion amongst the public. Many media stations were competing in providing new information concerning the scandal all over their websites. The fact that the government wanted to inform people there arise some negative impacts for all media stations shared every bit of information with the public. Chiefly, this is considered harmful to the people, especially involved parties (Princen, 2018).

Further, victims are unable to recover due to criticism and having a wrong image in the eyes of the public. Identically the media aids in agenda setup. First is to influence and take the attention of the audience regarding a particular issue. This is achieved by increasing the distinction of a specific topic in a report, therefore, affecting the interpretation of problems, also creating a dimension that facilitates public opinion. As a result, what they emphasize most tend to sway many attributes, thus ends in determining the public opinion and capturing the public’s attention. Vessels used in media include print media and television, which are based on the time taken on reporting various issues (Funk & McCombs, 2017).

Besides, a good example is The Washington Post that set national plans in 1972. The federal program being established by reporting information about the Democratic National Headquarters breakthrough. It resulted in an incursion of public interest shedding light on Watergate and Richard Nixon. Sometimes agenda setting is much influenced by politics in that many of the politicians tend to sponsor the media owners. As a result, they enquire about political advertisements on their behalf to benefit themselves and, on the other, disadvantage the public. Also, the plan prioritizes in this case; the media has influenced the people’s culture. Cultural beliefs have been affected, causing people to become antisocial, spending the most time watching the broadcast on the television by various media stations. The media is then responsible for changing public behaviour and thoughts by feeding accurate information that influences people’s decisions and rules their perceptions in general (Barberá et al., 2019).

In conclusion, agenda-setting held responsible for the media to be accountable and ethical in adhering to the rules set by the mass regulation so that in case people are misled; they must accept the consequences. The media plays a significant role in influencing people’s decisions and changing their way of thinking concerning various issues. The government should protect the public by ensuring the information they give through the media is positive and will influence them in the right way.

References;

Barberá, P., Casas, A., Nagler, J., Egan, P. J., Bonneau, R., Jost, J. T., & Tucker, J. A. (2019). Who leads? Who follows? Measuring issue attention and agenda-setting by legislators and the mass public using social media data. American Political Science Review, 113(4), 883-901.

Funk, M. J., & McCombs, M. (2017). Strangers on a theoretical train: Inter-media agenda setting, community structure, and local news coverage. Journalism Studies, 18(7), 845-865.

Princen, S. (2018). Agenda-setting and framing in Europe. In The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe (pp. 535-551). Palgrave Macmillan, London.