MindMap Gallery Communication Studies Chapter 12 Agenda Setting
The "agenda setting" theory in communication science is a very important concept, which reveals how mass media affects the public's perception and understanding of the world around them.
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This is a mind map about plant asexual reproduction, and its main contents include: concept, spore reproduction, vegetative reproduction, tissue culture, and buds. The summary is comprehensive and meticulous, suitable as review materials.
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Chapter 12 "Agenda Setting Theory"
1. Overview of theory
1⃣️, noun explanation:
connotation
It is an important way for mass media to influence society. Lippmann first proposed this idea in "Public Opinion"
Formally proposed:
As a theoretical hypothesis, it was first seen in the paper "The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media" published by communication scientists "McCombs and Shaw" in 1972 in "Public Opinion Quarterly"
meaning:
Mass communication often cannot determine people’s specific views on a certain event
But🉑️by providing information and arranging related topics
Effectively influence the facts, opinions and the order of discussion that people pay attention to
Features
1. Focus: the initial stage—“cognition”
The communication effect is divided into three levels: "cognition, attitude, and action", focusing on cognition
Focus: The influence of mass media on people’s “objects of thought”
Direct attention to specific issues by ✅telling people “what to think”
2. The inspection is not short-term:
It is not a short-term effect produced by a certain media report.
It is a series of reporting activities of the mass media as a whole and 🈶️ over a longer period of time.
mid- to long-term, comprehensive, and macro social effects
3. Agenda setting implies a media view:
The media is an organization engaged in "environmental reconstruction work"🉐️
That is to say, it is not a mirror-like reproduction, but an activity of purposeful selection.
meaning and limitations
1⃣️, meaning:
1. Get rid of the "limited effect theory":
Starting from the cognitive process of mass media in people’s environment
Reinterpreting the powerful influence of mass media
To get rid of the "limited effect theory"‼ ️Function
2. Reveal the control issues in the mass communication process:
The media is an institution for “environmental reconstruction operations”.
Put the control issues behind the mass communication process in front of people again
3. Examine the significance of public opinion orientation🈶️
It is the first stage of public opinion guidance.
A detailed examination of the public opinion guidance process🈶️‼ ️Meaning
2⃣️, limitations:
1. Failure to reflect social issues:
Only emphasizes the aspect of media that “sets” or forms social issues
2. The effect cannot be absolute
Although agenda setting is powerful
2⃣️, related 🧐 research
Mechanism
1. "0/1 effect" or "perception mode":
Mass media coverage or non-coverage of an issue
Will affect the public’s “perception” of the issue
2. "0/1/2" effect or "saliency mode":
Mass media emphasizes a few issues
Attract public "outstanding attention" to it
3. “0/1/2…N/” effect or “priority mode”:
Mass media cover a range of issues to varying degrees in order of priority
Influence the public's judgment on the importance of the issue
different types of issues
personal issues
conversation topics
public issues
(The media has a greater influence on the latter two)
“Agenda setting” characteristics of different media
1. Newspaper:
It has a greater impact on the order of importance of “long-term” issues.
Form the basic framework of the “agenda”
further have a profound impact on "personal issues""
2. TV:
"Hot 🔥 attunement effect" is outstanding
Select a number of important issues to “highlight”
Main impact: (conversation topic)
3⃣️, "Attribute Agenda Setting" and its two important test points
1. Connotation:
Media agenda setting does not only stop at the level of "constraining vision", but also has a deeper impact.
Various attributes of mass media reporting objects, highlighting or downplaying these attributes
Pass the "dominant attributes" of the object to the audience, affecting the audience's cognition, judgment and behavior
"What do you think"🤔——"How do you think"
2. Function:
It not only 🉑️ affects the audience’s attention to a certain feature of the agenda 🉐️
In turn, it affects the prominence of the object’s agenda (the second layer affects the first layer)
After-class exercises❤️:
What is "attribute agenda setting"? What are its characteristics?
(2) The characteristics of attribute agenda setting are divided into two levels:
The first level is the substantive dimension, which is the traditional field of agenda setting research, that is, the content of agenda setting theory as we know it, which affects the audience's attention to different events based on the order of arranging issues and the intensity of reporting;
The second level is the affective dimension, the emotional aspect, which further affects the audience through positive and negative reports such as the reporting angle, the words and vocabulary used, etc.
Rating ❤️:
What is confirmed by the transition from traditional agenda setting theory to attribute agenda setting theory is the "strong influence" theory in communication research. According to this theoretical context, the ability and degree of mass media's influence on the public are also constantly deepening.
Attribute agenda setting theory focuses on the terminal end of communication effect research—forming cognition. According to the idea of attribute agenda setting theory, mass media plays a more important role in influencing the content (issues) of public opinion and shaping the value orientation of public issues.
3. (Supplement)😄
🌟"Foreshadowing Effect":
Think people won’t be focused on everything, 🈶️highly selective
When people make judgments, they like exploratory analysis - perception and common sense
Sort by questions:
Agenda setting:
Prioritize issues of concern and convey them to the public through the media
Foreshadowing effect:
Pay more attention to the consequences of agenda setting and the process of forming personal opinions
4⃣️, "Network Agenda Setting" (NAS) Theory
1. Connotation:
Source:
On the third level, McCombs and student Guo Lei first proposed
meaning:
Influencing the public 🉐️ is not a single issue or attribute
It is a cognitive network composed of a series of issues
Not only tells "what to think🤔, how to think"
It also determines how we connect “different pieces of information🧩”,
Construct cognition and judgment of social reality🉐️
Features:
1. Introduce the concept of “co-occurrence”:
Emphasis on the agenda-setting model with @relationship as the core
"2. Degree centrality" replaces "frequency":
Become the main criterion for measuring the significance of elements🉐️
3. Provide a “overarching framework”:
Integrate analysis of “object” and “attribute”
2. Impact:
Adapt traditional agenda-setting classic theories to the new media environment
Promoted "social network" analysis and "semantic network analysis"
2. Agenda setting and framing theory/public opinion guidance
1⃣️, Framework Theory🆚Agenda Setting
❤️Same points:
1. Emphasize the influence of the media on the audience:
Both emphasize the powerful influence of the media on the audience, and both belong to the "multiple effects" stage
2. Discuss the "relationship between transmission and reception":
Emphasize the relationship between "media agenda" and "audience agenda"
3. Reaction:
All take into account the influence of the characteristics of the audience on the powerful effect of the media🉐️
💖Differences:
1. Theoretical source
Agenda setting:
From Lippmann, Cohen
frame:
The anthropological and psychological perspectives of Bateson et al.
2. Focus:
Agenda setting:
"Cognitive🤔level" - focus on the media's impact on the audience's agenda🉐️
frame:
"Effect Attitude" level - pay attention to the impact of media agenda on event attributes and audience attribution🉐️
💕It lies in “meaning construction”
3. Different methodologies:
agenda setting
Quantitative Research🧐
frame
qualitative research
2⃣️. Public opinion guidance🆚Agenda setting
❤️Same points:
agenda setting
The media🉑️ effectively influences people to pay attention to facts and opinions by providing issues, which coincides with the way of guiding public opinion🈴️
Capitalist society 🉐️Agenda setting:
The essence is a process of manipulation of public opinion for the dominant political economy🉐️
They are almost the same as the subjects and methods of public opinion guidance.
💖Differences:
1. Agenda setting
Affects "what to think"
Spontaneous 🉐️ spread effect
Existing only at the "cognitive level", the media agenda and the public agenda are not necessarily consistent
Communication 📣The impact of daily news reporting and information dissemination activities
2. Public opinion guidance
"What do you think? What do you think?"🤔
🈶️Purpose, hope to achieve a certain effect
Control "Thoughts and Behaviors - "Effect Level"
The public agenda is highly consistent with the public opinion agenda
The content of the guidance is "deliberate", a kind of "public relations behavior"
3. Agenda setting and new media environment
1⃣️, transmutation
1. Agenda setting subject:
"Single" to "Multiple"
‼ ️The 2018 self-media "King of Vaccines" was revealed, attracting national attention and media reports
2. Agenda setting audience:
"Generalized groups" to "precise circles"
In the past, there was “a lot of chaos and hiding”, now there is a “Papyrus Society” - Donald Shaw, horizontal and vertical interweaving
3. Agenda setting content:
The tendency of “pan-entertainment” is obvious
4. Agenda setting effect:
"Long-term holistic" to "transient multiple"
‼ ️"Weibo hot search"
5. Agenda setting object”:
"Niche issues" enter the "public view"
‼ ️"The two-dimensional culture of station B"
2⃣️Characteristics of online agenda setting
1. Diversification of subjects
2. The Internet 🀄️ interweaves “vertical” and “horizontal” agendas
Donald Shaw—“horizontal” (niche), “vertical” (mass media)
3. Limitations of agenda scope🉐️
The Internet 🀄️ is hot 🔥, but outside the Internet is "deserted"
4. Globalization tendency
‼ ️"Li Ziqi"
5. The active role of the Internet in setting the agenda of traditional media
enlarge
Weibo, WeChat, forum
‼ ️"Sun Zhigang" case-"viral spread"
weaken
"Ignorance" in traditional media issue networks
Influenced by netizens’ interests and communication methods
3⃣️. Is it applicable at the moment?
Applicable reasons 💖
1. Information Society🉐️ "Knowledge Gap" and "Digital Divide" Many people cannot make full use of the Internet
(1) Reshaping the functions of traditional media and improving agenda-setting capabilities In recent years, traditional media have relied on "Internet", "mobile first" and other paths to seize communication channels, regain their communication power and guidance, build a new mainstream media, and effectively improve their agenda-setting capabilities. For example, People's Daily has 150 million followers on Weibo. In major emergencies, it can quickly transfer the salience of issues to the public agenda through hot searches on Weibo. As media integration deepens, mainstream media will establish platform-based communication capabilities and competitive advantages, and continue to increase their influence. Under this trend, the hypothesis of agenda setting still holds true.
(2) Under high orientation demand, the public actively seeks agendas Orientation needs affect the setting effect of the media agenda and are composed of information relevance and uncertainty. With the current economic globalization, political multi-polarization, and social informatization intensifying, the "risk society" is becoming a reality. The need to reduce information uncertainty and resolve risks has become an important motivation for users to use media. In the context of China's Internet, the public actively and continuously pays attention to issues such as "epidemic", "labor" and "education", and the long-term effect of salience transfer is achieved. The core "salience shift" of agenda setting theory has not been eliminated, and the theory still has explanatory power.
(3) Horizontal media and vertical media construct the “Papyrus Society” The open Internet environment also brings about the diversified development of agenda setting. Donald Shaw uses "horizontal media" to refer to niche media and "vertical media" to refer to popular media. Horizontal media provide specific agendas for heterogeneous communities, while vertical media provide a public agenda and integrate society. The interweaving of horizontal media and vertical media creates a stable “Papyrus Society”. The Internet agenda allows people to belong to niche groups while ensuring awareness of the social environment. The media agenda still exists to influence the public agenda, but it is more diverse and precise. The agenda-setting theory is still persuasive.
2. Netizens have not formed fixed reading habits
3. Online media has diverse topics, but there are not many visits to a single channel.
4. Traditional media is still the mainstream in the Internet, and the information content of news websites is highly similar to traditional media.
4⃣️Challenges faced by strong effect theory in the digital environment
1. Agenda setting theory
The main body is generalized, and the mainstream media’s agenda-setting power is sidelined (main body)
Ending❤️
To avoid falling into gray situations, any classical theory must maintain continuous dialogue and reflection with practice. As Schudson said: "Real journalism researchers should also allow themselves to jump out of the journalism industry and observe from a higher place.".
The debate on the applicability of agenda setting theory in the new media environment not only promotes the progress of research on communication effects, but is also bound to push Chinese journalists to better serve the people under the guidance of Ma Xin Guan
The rise of “grassroots issues” undermines the seriousness of the agenda😠 (Content)
Agenda setting is "transient" and the communication effect is difficult to fully exert