Mass media doesn’t tell you what to think, but it tells you what to think about Essay

Body 1According to Stanley J. Barans (2002) definition of agendum setting, it is a supposition that argues that the media may non tell us what to regard, besides the media tells us what to think ab let on. Since the media cannot tell us what to think, it cannot rate ones opinion on a subject. An warning of this is the subject of taxes. This issue is comm unaccompanied discussed by the media, but it is up to the audiences interpretation of higher or let down taxes will benefit the individual. To further live this postulate a study called The states Choice was conducted in 1972 by Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw. These scholars from the University of North Carolina studied the billet of mass media in the presidential attempt in the town of chapel Hill. In the study they selected 100 undecided selectrs, because this radical of muckle were presumably those approximately dissonant or susceptible to campaign information. (Dearing and Rodgers,1992, p.6) In a three wee k degree prior to the election these respondents were interviewed. The voters human race schedule issues were measured by the survey question what be you almost concerned about these days? This was construe as What issues should the government emphasize to a greater extent? come out of the 100 voters, the five most common responses were law and order, foreign policy, public welfare, civil rights, and fiscal policy. The media agenda was do up of counting the number of intelligence agency program articles, editorials, and air stories from the nine mass media broadcasters of Chapel Hill. Surprisingly, the results yielded in an almost perfect correlativity between the rank order of the media agenda and the rank order of the public agenda. thence meaning that the higher number of iron a government issue had, the much the public voters ranked the subject world more important. Relating back to the statement of lot media doesnt tell you what to think, but it tells you what to think about, the voters were not told how to vote (hence they were undecided), but rather the media apply on what topics to vote for. This can be seen as the media sexual congress the public what to think about.Body 2Furthermore, with the rise of television, communicate, propaganda, and advertising, a counter transmission line may be created. The Hypodermic chevy Theory states that the mass media does tell you what to think. This theory suggests that the population is seen as a seance duck. Mass amounts of ideas can be implemented straight into the population with the intent for a desired response. The population is sought out to be powerless, and have no alternative but to accept the ideas. The people are seen as passive and believe what is told because it is the only source of information. In the event of war of the Worlds that was broadcasted on October 30th, 1938 as a lampoon played a supportive claim to this theory. During the event, a broadcast on the radio was int errupted by a news bulletin. The audience was told that there was an alien invasion. Out of the twelve one thousand million people who comprehend the broadcast, only one million people believe it and or reacted to it. Scholars and theorist ascribe the hypodermic needle theory and this broadcast together. What makes this argument weak is that eleven million people did not react the substance the media intended them too.