Framing, Agenda-setting & Gate-Keeping Flashcards
Level One Agenda-setting
- “They may not tell you what to think, but they tell you what to think about”
- ‘readers learn not only about a given issue but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position’ (Cohen, 1963)
Two basic assumptions about the media
- Media does not reflect reality, they filter and shape it.
- Media concentrate on a few issues and as a result the public perceive these issues to be most important.
Reflectionist approach
Reflect pre-existing meanings of ‘the real’
Constructivist approach
“we give things meaning by how we represent them. For example, the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them the images of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the way we classify them and conceptualise them, the value we place on them” (Hall 1997: 3)
Accessibility of news
- More frequently and more prominently an issue is covered, the more it is considered important by the public (mainly because of the issue is accessible in their memories)
- Therefore, there is a cumulative effect of lots of messages on one subject
Agenda setting
The agenda set by the media and the effect of this on the public.
Agenda Building
Involves reciprocity so media does not operate within a vacuum - there are influences on the media too (Rogers and Dearing 1988)
Citizen journalism and agenda-setting
- “Netizens can form an agenda, opinions form in which other Netizens can perceive the salient issue” (Kim & Lee 2006)
- e.g. Relevance of Trump’s tweets – on internet and then they are discussed
then transferred for discussion on mainstream media
Internet mediated agenda-rippling
- Internet mediated agenda-rippling – opinions rippled online via blogs, personal homepages, boards
- Online news or websites then report the important agenda online, which then snowballs
- This is then reported by traditional media
(but not necessarily in that order)
Level Two Agenda-setting
- Attributes are now highlighted (issue salience vs attribute salience)
- Described by Edelman (1993: 232) as when the ‘character, causes and consequences of any phenomenon become
radically different as changes are made in what is prominently displayed, what is repressed and especially in how observations are classified’
Ideology
- The attributes in level two agenda-setting reflect ideology (Scheufele 1999;
Shoemaker and Vos 2009) - One example is elections … (priming)
- Another example is advertising and how it frames items
Framing
- Framing complements the public salience of a topic by media
emphasis of certain attributes of that topic - The frequency of occurrence of a particular topic in an agenda may be similar between news channels, BUT the representation – the second-level agenda-setting – may prove to be the distinguishing factor
Framing
Entmann (1993)
‘Frames select some aspects of a
perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.’
Stereotyping
- Media might influence society and
this leads to stereotyping and to social reactions. e.g. (Media Panics) - 1960s mods and rockers
- ‘chavs’, wearing of hoodies – stigmatisation
- Women (moral panics about sexual behaviour and permissiveness
- Petrol panic buying 19
Some types of framing
- Humanitarian
- Conflict
- Economic
- Environmental
