An Explanation of the Manner in Which the National News Media Engage in Agenda Setting
A policy agenda refers to a set of issues or topics that are viewed as necessary for individuals that are involved in the development of policy decisions. These people include legislators, primary policy stakeholders, as well as government officials. According to Maxwell McCombs (2011), the power of the national news media is immense and influential. The power of the media is vested in the idea that media houses focus public attention on several public issues. In this case, the national media provides individuals with information related to public affairs. The audiences of national news media learn how important an issue or topic might be based on the extent to which the news emphasizes on the issue. The national media provides cues about salience, which appear in the opening story in television news, the lead story on the first page of the print media.
To emphasize the importance of the particular issue, the cues about the salience of the particular topic are repeated for a particular duration. The repetition is one of the elements that could be used to determine that the national news media can effectively set the agenda for the public’s attention to a group of issues, which form public opinion. Social scientists that examine the influence that the national news media have on the public usually focus on the issues directly affecting the public. The agenda of the news of a particular organization is found in the coverage pattern on the public issues over a given period such as a week or over several months (Walgrave & Van Aelst, 2016). Over this period, few issues are emphasized, with some of them being given light coverage and others not being mentioned.
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It would be vital to take note of the idea that the term agenda is descriptive. Concerning the idea that national news media reports various issues as provided for by policymakers, no derogatory implication could be cited to indicate that the media pursues a predetermined objective. Instead, the media presents the results obtained from decisions made by policymakers, government officials, and other people involved in setting public agenda. Some of the public agenda can be based on people’s opinions, which are derived from opinion polls. When the media reports on the results of the polls, the engagement yields evidence that determines that the media plays a significant role in setting public agenda. As argued by McCombs (2011), when individuals are asked about the some of the issues they would consider as the most important issues of the day, their responses are likely to reflect on the issues covered in the national news media. This provision is indicative of the idea that the engagement of national news media rests on the conveying of information on different topics.
Once the agenda of policymakers focus on different issues that should be discussed, the national news media is responsible for relaying the information about the issue to the public. The media executes this role by raising the awareness of the public. The media can raise the awareness by airing commercials or informing the public about the issues raised through social networking sites since many people use the social media platform to acquire information. Such actions by the national news media influence policy agenda in the sense that it allows one issue, out of several others, to be considered as more important (McCombs, 2011). The importance is vested on the extended time that the media uses to cover the issue they regard to be the most important.
The national news media is also responsible for engaging political actors regarding emerging agenda. According to Steraan Walgrave and Peter Van Aelst (2016), political actors are responsive to media coverage when the relayed information is in line with their political responsibilities. Most of the political actors respond to the media cues particularly when the information relates to the attainment of their objectives. The essential element to consider in this case relates to the provision that the media portrays information regarding what the public thinks about the actions of a particular political actor (Walgrave & Van Aelst, 2016). For instance, politicians use media coverage as a tool for furthering their objective. In this light, the media forms a formidable source of information related to the problems encountered in the society and the potential solutions that might be used to handle the problems. The political actors not only learn about the issues from the media, but they also learn about what the other politicians are doing to solve the problems.
In recent cases, some discussions have emerged regarding the presence of ‘fake news’ in the media. At the very least, the national news media might be interested in discrediting the information held by the majority to realize the creation of trusted brands. In this light, the media not only air fake news to influence public agenda, but also to benefit from such a crisis to recoup lost advertisement revenue that might have been taken on by social media. In this regard, it is possible to posit that the media relays information to fit their agenda, which would be inclusive of attracting larger audiences. Therefore, the media can engage in agenda setting through such reports, consequently influencing public opinion about a particular issue.
References
McCombs, M. (2011). The Agenda-Setting Role of the Mass Media in the Shaping of Public Opinion . Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237394610
Walgrave, S., & Van Aelst, P. (2016). Political Agenda Setting and the Mass Media. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics . doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.46
