“You can tell he has thought about this topic for longer than anyone would want to and he has explored just about every angle of it in his mind,” Kendall said. Many of the class discussions were geared toward the application of agenda-setting in today’s world of digital media. “When you’re writing a story or making a video, you are not directly thinking of agenda setting, but when you do your final edit you need realize how it will eventually hold a place in people’s minds.”Īll communications students are given a summary of what the agenda-setting theory is during their introductory communications courses, but Shaw’s class took it a step further by exploring different avenues and meanings of the theory. “It is good because it is there in the back of your mind and you know what kind of power a person in the media has,” said Elon senior Erik Kendall, a student who took Shaw’s class. While students may not consciously think about the agenda-setting theory in their future careers, Shaw hopes that by learning about it they will be able to innately keep it in mind once they enter the field of mass media. According to the theory, the media play an important role in determining how the public thinks and feels about major events and issues. The agenda-setting theory details how the media affect public opinion by noting that there is a positive correlation between how often a particular topic is covered in the media and how important the public believes that topic to be. “I would like students to not only understand agenda-setting theory, but also to be able to use it.” “My goal was to tell students how media set public agendas, thereby influencing community life,” Shaw said. Shaw and Max McCombs (left) authored the first study on agenda setting. Don Shaw (right) taught a class in the School of Communications this semester.
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