Peer-graded Assignment: Theory Guided Communication Essay
Clear structure
In 1968, two professors of journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, tested and confirmed for the first time the hypothesis that the media have a great influence on issues that the public considers important. Looking at the role of the media in the U.S. presidential election, McCombs and Shaw found that viewers often judge the importance of news based on how often and in detail it is covered by the media. Their research thus showed how the media shapes public opinion. The work of McCombs and Shaw has become a kind of the starting point for the overall direction of research, on how to address the issues of how to The selection of media news forms the public opinion of the city, region, country and world. However, in recent years, a number of researchers have increasingly criticized the basic definitions and characteristics of this theory, arguing that the proliferation of the Internet, online and social media platforms calls into question the productivity of variousaspects of theory in explaining the agenda-setting processin virtual public space. In this article, the main directions of criticism of the "classic" agenda-setting theory, which appeared under the influence of the study of processes occurring in the Internet space, are proposed for consideration. Let us consider (remind) the basic setting of the agenda-setting theory. M. McCombs and E. Reynolds in their work called "The impact of news on our world view" conclude that agenda-setting is the ability of the media to influence the definition of the importance of certain topics in the public agenda. In other words, if a certain news item is often discussed in the media, the audience (the public) will consider it as the most important issue than the other, less (or not at all) covered. The agenda-setting process is important not only for the media, but also in the framework of defining it as a social process that points to the interdependent links between the problems that are generated in the social environment and move to the level of public decision-making.
Overall logic of narration and arguments
Yochai Benkler, an American law professor and researcher, concludes that the potential of the Internet is in its ability to "make everyone a pamphleteer". This phrase points us to one of the key characteristics of the Internet that explains its popularity as a social and technological phenomenon: Web 2.0 technologies allow each user to co-author a variety of content that will be available to the Other. In continuation of this idea, S. Kim and Y. Lee note that agenda-setting on the Web differs from the traditional agenda-setting in that the Internet is in competition with traditional media, because it has a huge potential in terms of user interactivity and interactivity of content (the possibility of change, the speed of appearance and volume of information). Kim and Lee studied the indirect nature of the Internet agenda formation through the analysis of 10 cases, which were of great public interest in Korea during 5 years. Researchers have found the following: a person's opinion, spreading through various Internet channels, synthesizes public opinion, which, in turn, affects the news coverage in one way or another. Thus, their work has shown that there are "reversed agenda effects", meaning that the public agenda (the discussion of certain topics) on the Internet can set the agenda for other media outlets. Kim and Lee conclude that the "flow" of agendasetting between the Internet and traditional media does not always occur in a consistent manner. For example, a topic once reported in traditional media may come to the fore after a period of time through online discussions, or the above three steps may occur simultaneously within a short period of time. According to Jacob Sloan, an American journalism theorist, society still leaves entire groups of citizens "overboard," although the Internet is interactive and, as a result, anyone who has access to the Web can contribute to "social journalism. The fact is that Web 2.0 technologies in the global focus are still are inaccessible to the entire population, while the ability to use them substantially help citizens in various situations, such as during a natural disaster, when it comes to handing over of help messages to the outside world. In such cases in cases other than the ability to determine whether there are places where you can get free meals or clothes, the Internet can be incredibly powerful the resource of communication between people. In response to recent works on agenda-setting, McCombs states that agenda-setting effects obviously exist on the Internet. He uses the Althaus and Tewksbury experiment as an example, in which the opinion of 520 students regarding preferences in the choice of news sources was studied. This study compared the effects of agenda-setting in the online and print versions of The New York Times. Although the authors note that more research is needed in this area, the results of the study suggest that the online media agenda continues to have an impact on public opinion. The influence of agenda-setting on the Internet is explained by several factors. First, despite the fact that the digital divide still exists, the use of online news resources is growing. Second, even taking into account the wide variety of Internet news sources that provide endless lists of news through links (resulting in "easy" switching from one news to another, reduced attention to individual news), it should be borne in mind that audiences tend to continue to use a very limited number of news sources. Thus, electronic media continue to shape the agenda for their audiences.
Correct application of theoretical approaches
Application of the aforementioned ideas on our lives helps us notice the confirmations of the theories in our lives. For example, my personal agenda is formed by a variety of Telegram channels and my Facebook feed. I don't digest the traditional media: print or TV, so speaking about my personal experience, I can say that the Internet smoothly surpasses the traditional media in agenda-setting power. The recent scandalous 'information war' against Vladislav Surkov, a top Russian civil cervant, close to president Putin, confirms that. Firstly started in Telegram channels, the news titled as 'Surkov is fired' successfully reached to print media and radio and were considered a fake only when the agenda has been already set, which leads us to the phenomenon of 'fake news', but that's a whole another story
Originality of ideas exposed in the text and the quality of writing
Summarizing the described areas of development of the agenda-setting theory, initially aimed at describing the mechanisms of action of traditional media, we can draw the following conclusions. The Internet changes not only the ways of obtaining information, but also the nature of the sources themselves: Web 2.0 technologies massively involve "ordinary" network users in the process of agenda-setting. The Internet community, along with traditional mass media, can contribute to their own topics of discussion becoming socially important, i.e., "appearing on the public agenda", appearing on the agenda of the mass media (traditional and new) and thus reflected in political decisions. The virtual space of "endless news" online media, interspersed with information from individuals, is increasingly open to anyone with access to the Web, an interactive platform for discussing a wide range of news and events. In addition, the impact of electronic media on shaping the agenda poses the challenge for users to use online technology to address pressing issues affecting individuals or society as a whole. One such problem is the "digital divide" - the inability of certain categories of the population to represent their interests in public space through the creation of a virtual discourse. Thus, the basic settings of agenda-setting theory are being revised with amendments to the course of this process in the virtual public space, the importance of studying the influence of Internet media and the blogosphere on the formation of public opinion, the functioning of these phenomena in today's information society is recognized. Along with that, basing on a praxis, we can state that the agenda-setting power of the Internet is obviously the 'mother' of a fake news phenomenon, as Internet news, created by users, often gain a massive distribution thus сoercing the traditional media to follow the newly-set agenda.
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