Content
Introduction. 3
Mass Media and its Influence on Public Opinion and Political Behaviour 4
Agenda setting. 6
Priming. 9
Framing. 10
Conclusion. 13
References. 14
The aim of this paper was to consider the impact the mass media has on the political agenda and behaviour. Having studied the publications on the topic, we came to the following conclusions:
The political impact of the mass media extends far beyond newspaper reports and articles of a direct political nature, or television programs connected with current political affairs. In a much more subtle and diverse way, they can influence people’s thought patterns by other means, like ‘goodwill’ stories, pages dealing with entertainment and popular culture, movies, TV ‘soap operas’, ‘educational’ programs, etc. All these types of information shape human values, concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, sense and nonsense, what is ‘in trend’ and what is not, and what is ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’. These human value systems, in its turn, from people’s attitude to political issues, have impact on their voting choice and therefore determine those who holds political power.
They key functions the mass media performs in shaping people’s political attitude and behaviour are as follows: agenda-setting; priming; framing.
Agenda-setting implies that the media sets the public agenda, in the sense that they may not exactly tell you what to think, but they may tell you what to think about.
Closely related to agenda setting is the effect of priming. Priming refers to the fact that one piece of media information can influence how we interpret subsequent pieces of information by making us tune in to certain areas of thought. Thus, the news media can influence the criteria by which political candidates are judged by calling attention to some issues and ignoring others before the speech of the candidate.
A frame is the central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events and suggesting what is at issue. News and information has no intrinsic value unless embedded in a meaningful context which arranges and lends it coherence.
The agenda-setting effects of the mass media have significant implications beyond the pictures created in people’s heads. Beyond attitudes and opinions, the pictures of reality created by the mass media have implications for personal behaviors, ranging from college applications to voting on election day...
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