Get Chapter 8 Section 3 The Mass Media

In conclusion, if foreign policy is featured in the news more than any other issue, the audience are more likely to think foreign policy is the defining issue of the election campaign. This is the agenda-setting function of mass media.

There are two primary areas of media agenda-setting: (i) the media tells us the news and (ii) the media tells us what to think about the news. Press coverage sends signals to audiences about the importance of mentioned issues, while framing the news induces the unsuspecting viewer into a particular response.

Media is the very source of mass communication. Media plays the most informative role in our society. It is the main thing of mass communication. It has various forms, such as the internet, through which we can get updated news about the world in our grab just with a click of a finger.

Mass media technology has changed the very nature of cultural diffusion, by widely propagating cultures and norms across wider audiences. That is the reason why modern society picks up all new trends, fashion, and fads from mass media. More importantly, mass media affects behaviour of people in society.

Mass media means technology that is intended to reach a mass audience. It is the primary means of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most common platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet.

the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.

What is the media's role in shaping the public's agenda? The media shapes the public's agenda by addressing societal problems that the nations political leaders and the general public agree need government attention. The media determines what public matters the people will think and talk about.