AGENDA-BUILDING AS A CONCEPT

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Recommended: The role of mass media in shaping public opinion

Introduction In this paper I attempt an in-depth analysis of the concept of agenda-building. By going beyond the examination of how media decides its’ agenda and influences the salience of issues, I explore how agenda-building plays its’ role in the process. What is important to emphasize on is the mutual influence that is found in agenda-building. I observe what the relationship between media salience and public salience is in regards to agenda-building. This is because it is what ultimately influences how media chooses to gather up information to show to the public. The media considers their own opinion in addition to the publics’ opinion. Another analysis made was the relationship and correlation between media agenda and public agenda. There are various factors to take into consideration when conceptualizing agenda-building. I found out that there were common themes in the research I carried out. As I synthesized the sources I narrowed it down to the most commonly used themes that were present in the studies. These are first and second-level agenda-building, politics, public relations/opinion, media influence and methods of going about the research. Though these elements have their own attributes it’s not always consistent as to how the authors choose to define and explain a theme and a given term. The idea of agenda-building can be broad, however it comes down to how a part of culture defined by a fundamental agenda of beliefs about democracy and society comes to make decisions. (McCombs, 2004) This is how agenda-building develops and occurs. From the research that I carried out and the sources used in this paper, I found that the idea of agenda-building is distinct but is directly related to agenda setting. According to Ki... ... middle of paper ... ...ook, M. (2007). Understanding influence on corporate reputation: an examination of public relations efforts, media coverage, public opinion, and financial performance from an agenda-building and agenda-setting perspective. Journal of Public Relations Research, 19, 2, 147-165. Kiousis, S., Mitrook, M., Wu, X., & Seltzer, T. (2006). First- and second-level agenda-building and agenda-setting effects: exploring the linkages among candidate news releases, media coverage, and public opinion during the 2002 florida gubernatorial election. Journal of Public Relations Research, 18, 2, 265-285. McCombs, Maxwell E. (2004). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Cambridge, UK: Polity. McCombs, Maxwell E., and Shaw L. Donald. (1993). The evolution of agenda-setting research: twenty-five years in the marketplace of ideas. Journal of Communication 43:58–67.

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