A LITERATURE REVIEW “SETTING THE AGENDA FUNCTION IN MEDIA”

NiazDaifallah

Abstract The paper aims at reviewing the agenda- setting function and theory of mass communication, which started as an idea in 1920 by Walter Lippmann, when he discussed the issue of the mass media impact on public opinion in the ‘Public Opinion’ book, he found and theorized that the media creates a non-similar Image in our minds to reality of the real stories and news, by shaping the content according to the professional journalism roles and limitations, which give the media institutions and workers the control over the content and create what he called a ‘pseudo-environment’, that means media does not work as a mirror to reflect the same image of the real environment of the stories, and by this way it impacts the public opinion, in other words the media role is not only to make coverage for some events in the society, it also mediates its content before broadcasting it to the public to make the impact. The concept of setting the agenda adopted, developed, and used for the first time by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1968 depending on Lippmann’s theory. McCombs and Shaw were researching to examine the effects of mass media on the public and voter’s opinion in a presidential election campaign in the U.S.A. They theorized that the agenda of media sets the agenda of the public by raising the salience of some issues and overlooking others, media plays the role of giving attention to some issues and do not take into account some others, it primes the issues and also frames it to influence the public and make them feel that the covered issues are the major topics for the day, in addition it shapes and structures news by mentioning the elements that can frame the image before delivering it to the public, that means the position of the public or audience was passive in this stage. The changing landscape of media is the challenge for the theory, the continuous deployment of social media networks, we mean the technologies of communication and the integration with new media, digital media, and also citizen media, do not work in the same ways of the traditional media, the structure of the relationship with the public has changed, and the roles of the public after the revolution of internet and technology became totally different and very active, they can reach to the events and publish information about it, they can encourage the media to cover some issues, moreover this change made the public more and more involved in the media sphere, because they have the tools which give them the opportunity to publish different media contents to influence their followers, friends, and also media institutions. In other words, the public nowadays has a major role in setting and impacting the agenda of media, they practice some responsibilities of the journalists and media. All of these situations made the authorities of media’s decision makers affect by the public agenda, which means media agenda and public agenda influence each other.