Ah agenda setting, this is one of those interesting topics, because in some worlds in may come across as contentious. Are we really that heavily influenced by the news, are they secretly shaping the world around us, is there any hope for poor jimmy? The answer is yes we do heavily influence the news, because having a career based around news, you would hope to. No, they’re not secretly shaping the world, we can see it happening it’s just easier to let them do it. Yes, there is always hope, because it is not this day, THIS DAY WE FIGHT, especially Jimmy even with his bum leg, Back on topic.
Agenda setting in a nutshell, is the way in which Journalists, News Papers, Television and the Internet influence what we conceive as important. That may sound a bit dystopian at first glance, but it’s negative appearance is really more like beauty and the beast, though I’d never say what’s underneath is a caring, loving man, more like a slightly less evil version (I really should stop being so pessimistic).
In reality and more importantly back to the topic, agenda setting appears as a necessary part of the news world, that just so happens to sound incredibly evil. In our everyday lives, we are pummeled with news from every angle, some important, while others not so much. Agenda setting, is simply going through all that news and taking out what aspects are the most important of the day and running them on the News or on the internet. A quote from the lecture was, “The mass media do not merely reflect and report reality, they filter and shape it.” This is a good description in my mind, because it provides what I think is a good description of the job of a Journo and why agenda setting is a necessary occurrence (I won’t say evil because that sounds silly).
Before I sign off again, I would just like to address the issue of news programs such as Fox news, Nine news and, ugh, ET (Entertainment Tonight). While I personally do not find any enjoyment or actual news from any of those “news channels,” I will say that they provide a necessary service concerning agenda setting. While other sources of news might focus on things such as world calamities, politics, recent scientific discovery and other less wasteful human interest stories, they provide an outlet for this type of news. This provides the general public with the opportunity to absorb all different kinds of news and is necessary in a world such as ours.
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