Friday, May 7, 2010

Agenda-Setting Theory of Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw

The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by any law. It determines what people will talk and think about – an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties, and mandarins - Theodore White

Mass media has great effect on people’s life. Every day a lot of people read thousands of newspapers, listen to the various radio stations and watch a lot of TV. Say, you are sitting at home, listening to the radio and drinking coffee in the morning. Suddenly your favorite host on the radio says: “Call us now! We are talking about problems of elementary education in the schools. Your opinion is extremely important to us.” Before these words you thought about something else, but after this you begin to think about elementary education. You realize that you have some useful thoughts and opinions about this and pick up the phone to call them. Who knows, maybe your ideas will help somebody to solve the following problem. Before you pick up the phone – think what make you do that. People on the radio decided for you what they are going to discuss today and you became their “prisoner” for the moment. It even made you do something about that (in this case – make a call.) As you can see media has the greatest impact on our lives. We discuss what we saw on TV last night or talk about the latest news we read in the newspapers. Usually we do not even think deeply why we do that. Maybe we should…

This is just what agenda-setting theory is telling about. Agenda – setting theory has been developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Show and it gives the opinion that no matter what you think, but matters what you think about. It is very important to realize the meaning of the word “about” in this case. The agenda-setting shows indirect, cognitive effects of mass media. The following theory boasted two attractive features: it reaffirmed the power of the press while still maintaining that individuals were free to choose.

For the first time this agenda – setting theory was mentioned by the University of Wisconsin political scientist Bernard Cohen. Actually Cohen made just a statement that “the news media may not directly affect how the public thinks about political matters, but it does affect what subjects people think about.” Then the theory was discovered by a number of scientists. They demonstrated that the power of media effects goes beyond agenda setting. The scientists Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder in 1982 first identified that people do not have to elaborate the knowledge; they should consider what more readily comes to mind. As you can see this statement somehow eases the work of people’s brain. The media is responsible for the message itself and for the importance of that message. Counting that agenda – setting theory influences individuals indirectly, the agenda of these messages should be set very carefully.

The most important and interesting aspect in agenda setting theory is framing. James Tankard, one of the leading writers on mass communication theory, defines a media frame as “the central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion and elaboration.” Robert Entman also describes in his article clarifying the concept:

To frame is to select some aspects of a percieved reality and make them more salient in a communication text, in such a way as to promote a paricular problem definition, causual interpretation, moral evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.

Thus we can see that framing is the reporter’s perception of the problem and how he/she presents it in the newspaper. The popularity of framing as a construct in media studies has resulted in diverse and perhaps contradictory use of the term.

Obviously, news does not select itself. So who sets the agenda for the agenda setters? One view regards a handful of news editors as the guardians, or “gate-keepers”, of political dialogue. Nothing gets put on the political agenda without the concurrence of eight men – the operation chiefs of Associated Press, the New Yourk Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Although there is no evidence to support right-wing conservative charges that the editors are part of a liberal, eastern-establishment conspiracy, these key decision makers are undeniably part of a media elite that does not represent a cross-section of US citizens. The media elite consists of of middle-aged Caucasian males who attend the same conferences, banquets, and parties. When one of them “puffs” a story, the rest of the nation’s media climb aboard.

Some of the examples of agenda-setting theory and how it influences people show that this theory is extremely important in communication and especially while studying media literacy. Chronic social issues are much more dependent on media coverage to raise public consciousness and conscience. For example, journalist C. J. Bosso found that news organizations were slow to react to famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s. But when the press and the television finally picked up the story, everybody began to talk about it. When the media later abandoned the issue, people concluded that the crisis was over and shifted their attention elsewhere. This study illustrates the consistent finding that most people can only concentrate on three to five new topics at a time. If the media bring a new issue to the fore, another topic will recede in the public’s consciousness. The media seem particularly effective in creating public interest in political candidates and campaign strategy. By January 1992, news commentators had decided that Bill Clinton was the leader for the Democratic presidential nomination. “Before a vote was cast, and even though polls showed that more than half of all rank-and-file Democrats did not even know who he was, Clinton was hailed on the covers of Time, The New Republic, and New York magazine.”

Most of us know that sad example of agenda–theory happened in 1930’s when one radio station was translating “The War of the Worlds” by G. Wells. Some people really thought that the beasts from Mars invaded the Earth. One lady even committed a suicide. From this example you can see how easy some people are influenced by mass media.

So who are the people most affected by the media agenda? Now some scientists concluded that they are the people who have a willingness to let the media shape their thinking have a high need for orientation. Others refer to it as an index of curiosity. Need for orientation arises from high relevance and uncertainty. Because I am a dog and cat owner, any story about cruelty to animals always catches my attention (high uncertainty). According to McCombs and Shaw, this combination would make me a likely cnadidate to be influenced by media stories about vivisection. If the news editors of Time and ABC thisnk it is important, I probably will too.

Agenda – setting theory has strong and weak points, as every other theory. It is pretty simple and it works usually in advertisements. When you see the commercial, you hear the information about certain product. But this information not necessarily can be true. You just absorb the story it tells in order to buy the product advertised. Thus the theory usually affects weak people and those who cannot decide what to think by themselves. The theory is not working for everyone. Some people just think what they think and do not pay attention to anything they are told. Only people who want to be influenced by somebody or something can actually be influenced.

McCombs and Shaw have established a plausible case that some people look to print and broadcast news for guidance on which issues are really important. Agenda-setting theory also provides a needed reminder that news stories are just that – stories. The message always requires interpretation. For these reasons, McCombs and Shaw have accomplished the function they ascribe to media. Agenda-setting theory has a priority place on the mass communication agenda.
credit: http://www.lnu.edu.ua/mediaeco/zurnal/N3/kravchenko-engl.htm

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Uses and Gratifications Model of the Media


One influential tradition in media research is referred to as 'uses and gratifications' (occasionally 'needs and gratifications'). This approach focuses on why people use particular media rather than on content. In contrast to the concern of the 'media effects' tradition with 'what media do to people' (which assumes a homogeneous mass audience and a 'hypodermic' view of media), U & G can be seen as part of a broader trend amongst media researchers which is more concerned with 'what people do with media', allowing for a variety of responses and interpretations. However, some commentators have argued that gratifications could also be seen as effects: e.g. thrillers are likely to generate very similar responses amongst most viewers. And who could say that they never watch more TV than they had intended to? Watching TV helps to shape audience needs and expectations.

U & G arose originally in the 1940s and underwent a revival in the 1970s amd 1980s. The approach springs from a functionalist paradigm in the social sciences. It presents the use of media in terms of the gratification of social or psychological needs of the individual (Blumler & Katz 1974). The mass media compete with other sources of gratification, but gratifications can be obtained from a medium's content (e.g. watching a specific programme), from familiarity with a genre within the medium (e.g. watching soap operas), from general exposure to the medium (e.g. watching TV), and from the social context in which it is used (e.g. watching TV with the family). U & G theorists argue that people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium. Zillmann (cited by McQuail 1987: 236) has shown the influence of mood on media choice: boredom encourages the choice of exciting content and stress encourages a choice of relaxing content. The same TV programme may gratify different needs for different individuals. Different needs are associated with individual personalities, stages of maturation, backgrounds and social roles. Developmental factors seem to be related to some motives for purposeful viewing: e.g. Judith van Evra argues that young children may be particularly likely to watch TV in search of information and hence more susceptible to influence (Evra 1990: 177, 179).

An empirical study in the U & G tradition might typically involve audience members completing a questionnaire about why they watch a TV programme. Denis McQuail offers (McQuail 1987: 73) the following typology of common reasons for media use:

Information

* finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
* seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
* satisfying curiosity and general interest
* learning; self-education
* gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

* finding reinforcement for personal values
* finding models of behaviour
* identifying with valued other (in the media)
* gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction

* gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
* identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
* finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
* having a substitute for real-life companionship
* helping to carry out social roles
* enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

* escaping, or being diverted, from problems
* relaxing
* getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
* filling time
* emotional release
* sexual arousal

Blumler & Katz (1974) argued that audience needs have social and psychological origins which generate certain expectations about the mass media, leading to differential patterns of media exposure which result in both the gratification of needs and in other (often unintended) consequences. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices. However, McQuail suggests that the dominant stance of recent researchers in this tradition is now that:

Personal social circumstances and psychological dispositions together influence both... general habits of media use and also... beliefs and expectations about the benefits offered by the media, which shape... specific acts of media choice and consumption, followed by.... assessments of the value of the experience (with consequences for further media use) and, possibly... applications of benefits acquired in other areas of experience and social activity. (ibid: 235).

James Lull (1990: 35-46) offers a typology of the social uses of television based on ethnographic research.

Social Uses of Television

Structural

* Environmental: background noise; companionship; entertainment
* Regulative: punctuation of time and activity; talk patterns

Relational

* Communication Facilitation: Experience illustration; common ground; conversational entrance; anxiety reduction; agenda for talk; value clarification
* Affiliation/Avoidance: Physical, verbal contact/neglect; family solidarity; family relaxant; conflict reduction; relationhip maintenance
* Social Learning: Decision-making; behaviour modelling; problem-solving; value transmission; legitimization; information dissemination; substitute schooling
* Competence/Dominance: Role enactment; role reinforcement; substitute role portrayal; intellectual validation; authority exercise; gatekeeping; argument facilitation

(Lull 1990: 36)


Watching TV Soap Operas

A major focus for research into why and how people watch TV has been the genre of soap opera. Adopting a U & G perspective, Richard Kilborn (1992: 75-84) offers the following common reasons for watching soaps:

* regular part of domestic routine and entertaining reward for work
* launchpad for social and personal interaction
* fulfilling individual needs: a way of choosing to be alone or of enduring enforced loneliness
* identification and involvement with characters (perhaps cathartic)
* escapist fantasy (American supersoaps more fantastical)
* focus of debate on topical issues
* a kind of critical game involving knowledge of the rules and conventions of the genre


Watching TV Quiz Programmes

McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) offered the following summary of clusters of 'uses' that people made of TV quizzes:

Gratifications of TV Quiz Shows: Selected Responses

Self-Rating Appeal

* I can compare myself with the experts
* I like to imagine that I am on the programme and doing well
* I feel pleased that the side I favour has actually won
* I am reminded of when I was in school
* I laugh at the contestants’ mistakes

Basis for Social Interaction

* I look forward to talking about it with others
* I like competing with other people watching with me
* I like working together with the family on the answers
* The children get a lot out of it
* It brings the family together sharing the same interest
* It is a topic of conversation afterwards

Excitement Appeal

* I like the excitement of a close finish
* I like to forget my worries for a while
* I like trying to guess the winner
* Having got the answer right I feel really good
* I get involved in the competition

Educational Appeal

* I find I know more than I thought
* I find I have improved myself
* I feel respect for the people on the programme
* I think over some of the questions afterwards
* It’s educational

(McQuail, Blumler & Brown 1972)

Social class seemed to be related to gratifications here. McQuail et al. noted that most of those who watched quiz programmes for 'self-rating' gratifications lived in council houses and were working-class. 'Excitement' was most commonly reported as a gratification by working-class viewers who were not very sociable. And those who reported 'educational appeal' as the major gratification were those who had left school at the minimum age. John Fiske suggests that these could be seen as compensatory uses of the media 'to gratify needs that the rest of social life frustrates' (Fiske 1982: 136). In contrast, people who reported having many acquaintances in their neighbourhood tended to see the quizzes as a basis for social interaction.


Criticisms of ‘Uses and Gratifications’

The use of retrospective 'self-reports' has several limitations. Viewers may not know why they chose to watch what they did, or may not be able to explain fully. The reasons which can be articulated may be the least important. People may simply offers reasons which they have heard others mention. More promising might be the study of people's engagement with media as it happens.

Some degree of selectivity of media and content is clearly exercised by audiences (e.g. choice or avoidance of TV soap operas. However, instrumental (goal-directed) accounts assume a rational choice of appropriate media for predetermined purposes. Such accounts over-emphasize informational purposes and ignore a great deal in people's engagement with media: TV viewing can be an end in itself. There is evidence that media use is often habitual, ritualistic and unselective (Barwise & Ehrenberg 1988). But more positively, TV viewing can sometimes be seen as aesthetic experience in which intrinsic motivation is involved.

The U & G approach has been criticized as 'vulgar gratificationism'. It is individualistic and psychologistic, tending to ignore the socio-cultural context. As a theoretical stance it foregrounds individual psychological and personality factors and backgrounds sociological interpretations. For instance, David Morley (1992) acknowledges that individual differences in interpretation do exist, but he stresses the importance of subcultural socio-economic differences in shaping the ways in which people interpret their experiences with TV (via shared 'cultural codes'). U & G theorists tend to exaggerate active and conscious choice, whereas media can be forced on some people rather than freely chosen. The stance can also lead to the exaggeration of openness of interpretation, implying that audiences may obtain almost any kind of gratification regardless of content or of 'preferred readings'. Its functionalist emphasis is politically conservative: if we insist that people will always find some gratifications from any use of media, we may adopt a complacently uncritical stance towards what the mass media currently offer.

U & G research has been concerned with why people use media. Whilst this approach sprang from 'mainstream' research in social science, an interpretive tradition has arisen primarily from the more arts-oriented 'cultural (and 'critical') studies'. The approach sometimes referred to as reception theory (or reception analysis) focuses on what people see in the media, on the meanings which people produce when they interpret media 'texts' (e.g. Hobson 1982, Ang 1985, Seiter, Borchers, Kreutzner & Warth 1989). This perspective tends to be associated with the use of interviews rather than questionnaires. Such interviews are often with small groups (e.g. with friends who watch the same TV programmes). The emphasis is on specific content (e.g. a particular soap opera) and on specific social contexts (e.g. a particular group of working-class women viewers).

credit: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html

Who do you think should captain Ghana at the World Cup in South Africa?

About Me

My photo
I am slightly more introverted than extroverted but am good at communicating one on one or in small groups. I have been told that I am an excellent listener and problem solver, which I think is a plus.

In my very elements!

In my very elements!
GIJ's finest..

Think Life. Think Lexis

Live this life to your best!

Home | Mail Online

Followers