Adgenda Setting

Adgenda Setting- Donald Shaw, Maxwell Mcombs, Renita Coleman and David Weaver

Adgenda Setting: "the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that large segments of the public come to percieve those issues as more important than others."

This article goes into great depth about the impact and the mechanics of adgenda setting in the media. An interesting point raised is that the theory of adgenda setting has been adopted by other disiplines such as health communication, political communication and business.

I also found it interesting that the development of the adgenda setting theory rose from those who were wrried about the influence of the 'pictures in our head'. Whenever I think about the influence of the media I always arrived at the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds broadcast. To get such an immense reaction from the spoken word ia really amazing. It is A lot easier than people think to influence others through the media.

Reading this article make me wonder what would happen if the focus of the news was slowly changed and things that are of little impotance of the news were brought to the forefront. I also wonder what the relevance sometimes of the latest Lindsay Lohan trial when there are so many other stories that could be covered.

I thought a good point covered was a consumers 'need for orientation'. People use the media to understand the events that are happening around them. I think the problem with some is that they take what is said as truth. Even if something seems clear people must realise that there is more than one way to look at things.