 First
introduced
in 1972 in
public
opinion
quarterly
by Drs.
Maxwell
McCombs
and Donald
Shaw.

 Theory was developed as a study on the 1968
presidential election
 Lyndon B. JHONSON was ousted by
republican challenger Richard Nixon
 Chapel Hill Study

 Surveyed 100
residents
 media uses a
number of cues
to indicate the
importance of
an issue.
 On the front
page of a
newspaper, for
example, the
importance of a
story is
indicated by
the size of its
heading.

 Originated in
Walter
Lippmann's
classics, public
opinion (1922)
 establishes the
principal
connection
between worlds
events and the
image in the
public mind.

 In 1963,
Bernard Cohen
noted that
 Media may not
be successful
much of time
in telling
people what to
think but it is
successful in
telling what to
think about.

 In 1998, McCombs increased the scope of this
theory to include a phenomenon called
‘framing’.
 He argued that in addition to telling
us what to think about, the media can also
tell us how to think about a story.
 News reports might focus on one particular
aspect of an issues or report about something
in a particular way.

Political scientist Bernard Cohen observed
“The press may not be successful much of the
time in telling people what to think, but it is
stunningly successful in telling them what to
think about.”

 In his book, Public Opinion (1922),
Lipmann argued that “mass media,
primarily newspapers and magazines…
create our picture of the world”
(McCombs & Bell, 94).

 In choosing and displaying news editors,
newsroom staff, and broadcasters plays and
important role in shaping political reality.
 Reader learns about a issue.
 How much importance attach to that issue.
 Saying of candidates during campaign
 Mass media well determine the important
issue
(McCombs, 2011)

 Media set the agenda
 It shows that media is powerful in
popularizing different stories, events
 But also recognize that public is free to
chose how they think about things

 Issues prominent in the media were:
 Foreign policy
 Law and Order
 fiscal Policy
 Public Welfare
 Civil Rights

 Two most basic assumption
1. The press and media do not reflect reality
they filter and shape it.
2. Media concentration on a few issues and
subject leads the public to perceive those
issue as important than any other issue

 Cognitive process
 More frequently and prominently the news
covers an issue the more that issue become
accessible in the audience's memory.

 Media “gatekeepers”(series of check points
the news has go through before it gets to the
public)
 The scientist and health professionals
 Public affairs professionals
 Interest group
 Compelling news events

 The basis of framing theory is that the
media focuses attention on certain events
and then places them within a field of
meaning.
 Media influence the way we think
 Media do this through framing
 Selection, emphasis, exclusion,
elaboration

 News frames make the world look natural.
They determine what is selected, what is
excluded, what is emphasized.

 Framing determines the salience of different
elements in a story
 Framing = Interpretation of stories
 Framing refers to the way media organize
and present information and the way
audience interpret that information.
 “mass media have a strong impact by
constructing social reality”

 The frame
 Media intensify their focus on crime,
 Framing crime as
 Something can happen to anyone
 Something most fearsome when local
 The effect
 Public concern about crime increases, even
though actual crime fall

Public agenda
Policy agenda
Media agenda

 Focuses on the audience agenda
 issues discussed and personally relevant to
members of the public
 individuals vary on their need for
orientation.
 Need for orientation is a combination of the
individual’s interest in the topic and
uncertainty about the issue.

Need for Orientation and Agenda Setting
Effects
0 5 10
Highly
Relevant
Irrelevant
Topic
Agenda Setting Effects Attention to News Need for Orientation

 The higher levels of interest and uncertainty
produce higher levels of need for
orientation.
 Obtrusive issues
 Unobtrusive issues
 An issue is obtrusive if most members of the
public have had direct contact with it.
 Obtrusive of issue based on the audience
personal experience with topic.

 Example: high gas price, increased cost of
food
 and unobtrusive if audience members have
not had direct experience.
 More distant to the public
 Example: political scandal or genocide in
Darfur.

 issues that policy makers consider important
(legislators)
 In policy agenda gatekeepers set the agenda
for audience
 Control over the selection of content
discussed in the media; what the public know
and care about at any given time is mostly a
product of media gate keeping.

 Focuses on the influence of the mass media
on the audience
 issues discussed in the media (newspapers,
television, radio)
 Many issues exist on mass media like
pollution, terrorism and high cost of living.
These issues make up the media agenda.

 Focused on detecting the process of news
production which is a compound of how
media selects news stories from many issues
in the real life
 How news stories are produced and how the
media content is presented
 Public relations specialists may try to set
media agenda through the interests and
objectives of the company they work for.

 Public relations serves a wide variety of
institutions in society.
 businesses, agencies, hospitals, schools,
colleges, and religious institutions.
 Institutions must develop effective
relationships with many different audiences
or publics such as employees, members,
customers, local communities, and with
society at large

 the public relations professionals must have
in sharp focus the “laws” that govern public
opinion.
 Public relations activities for issues that are
related to social interests like education,
influence the media agenda.