Critique the Agenda Setting Theory of Media Effects

The Agenda Setting Theory of Media Effects stipulates that the Media holds it in their power to determine which issues society should consider serious and feed on.Thus the media charts the path of a public agenda.

In our society today, it is a well worn cliche to stress that the media is not always considered the primose interparose when it comes to how society should think and set its priority.A lot of discerning listeners subject news to severe scrutiny and decide which one to pick with no cognizance yo what news items made the headlines.To such people the media has rather become a tool for exaggeration where every fire becomes an inferno,every demonstration a rampage as well as every defeat a collapse.The other side of the coin lies in the fact that there are independent people who are so liturgical to whatever goes on in the media.Thus with such persons, nothing informs their already formed perceptions and trends of thought.

References

McCombs, M.E. (1982). The Agenda-Setting Approach. In: Nimmo, D. & Sanders, K. (Eds.) Handbook of Political Communication. Beverly Hills, CA.: Sage.

Kosicki, G. M. (1993). Problems and Opportunities in Agenda-Setting Research. Journal of Communication. Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 100–127.

Kiousis, S. , McCombs, M. (2003, March). Agenda Setting Study: Agenda Setting effects and strength, MT Journal Nr. p. 142