Agenda Setting and Framing dictate what and how people discuss the hot topics of today’s world. This blog post will explain just what agenda setting and framing are, and includes examples of each to better ones understanding of the topics discussed. The example of agenda setting shows how a man with no standing at all gained the attention of the world (including the President of the United States) over night, and the example of framing provides a humorous example of how framing can completely change how something is viewed by the public eye.
‘Agenda setting’ controls what the public pays attention to. People discuss the topics that are presented in the media all around them. There are gatekeepers that decide which stories get published and which ones do not. People have conversations completely revolving around the lives of The Kardashians because the media has placed them in the eye of the public with reality TV shows, magazine covers, and a myriad of web blog coverage. More people will discuss the tragedy that occurred on 9/11 on September 11th because memorials will be everywhere, programs will be aired about the events, new graphic pictures will surface, and more all to gain the attention of the public. It is the ‘what.’ The concept of ‘Framing’ is in simpler terms how the media presents the information they publish. How something is framed dictates how the public will perceive the information they read about and see. Ranging from political to celebrity news, it is a rarity to find something completely void of framing (non-biased) without the intent to present something in either a bad or a bright light. Due to the massive presence of the media in today’s society, media has gained the power to greatly influence what we focus our attention on (agenda setting), and in turn how we think about an issue, person, movie, etc, (this is framing).
A great example of agenda setting occurred a couple days ago when headlines hit around the nation reading, ‘WORLD WATCHES AS A GAINESVILLE PASTOR THREATENS TO BURN QURAN.’ This news story of a Florida “Pastors’” threats to burn the Quran on 9/11 was so rampant in the media that the secretary of defense and President Obama took the time to ask this man not to act. It became a matter of national security, concerning the safety of our troops in Iraq. The sad thing is that if looked into further this man was not a man of great influence. Rather his “congregation” is composed of less than fifty people (a meeting that could occur inside his house). Yet, because the press used the word ‘Pastor’ to describe this man, people were led to believe he had a sermon aired on television, a massive community of support behind him and more. Clearly, had the press never given this man the time of day, this national security risk would have remained non-existent. This man’s following was so small nobody would have ever even known. Here is a link to the article that created so much frenzy http://www.wtsp.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=145224&catid=81
A funny example of framing I found concerns how press agents working for Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign completely changed the light in which her great uncle was painted. This was done not thorough lying, but merely through a change of words, tone, and the absence of a few facts and a picture. It is quite humorous in the completely polar switch of how a person reading the original article would view the man and how the person reading the secondary article would see him. http://ken-chapman.blogspot.com/2007/11/political-spin-at-its-best.html
fantastic job, this is exactly what we are looking for, keep it up
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