““Throughout their day-by-day selection and display of the news, editors and news directors focus our attention and influence our perceptions on what are the most important issues of the day. Their ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda has come to be called the agenda setting role of the media.”
“ Newspapers and TV news, even the tightly edited pages of a tabloid newspaper or Internet website, do considerably more than signal the existence of major events and issues.”
I believe that McCombs agenda-setting theory is something that all consumers of American news media should take into consideration. If I had not been surrounded for the past few years and been pursuing a career in the news I probably would not have been thinking about these types of things. I feel that “some” and I say some, because I cannot speak for all, but that some just take their news for what it’s worth and never really question how and why news editors and news directors are influencing people’s perceptions on what the most important issues are.
Working in a newsroom over the summer, I saw first hand how easily news directors and producers can just simply take out a story and replace it with another one. While I know much deliberation goes into making the decisions to cut a story, it just goes to show how much power these people have over what the public hears or reads.
No comments:
Post a Comment