The Agenda Setting And Spiral Of Silence Media Essay

The schedule stage setting And Spiral Of Silence Media turn upAlan Crosbie, who is the Chairman of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, a large Irish media player verbalise in his speechcommented on new media there is a tsunami of study coming from new media some of which has the capacity to destroy civil participation and ca part unimagin able-bodied suffering. Let us try and understand why Media holds so much power. Significantly Media has had a dominating influence all e very(prenominal)where populations lives and convictions since time immemorial. A classic example of convincing people of ones beliefs was during the Nazi Regime. The full nation was convinced of the Nazi ideologies through getting the entire media channels either under the governments control or having censorship rights over the privately owned ones. This resulted in patriotic and nationalistic sentiments be instilled in songs, movies and even the intelligence activity was censored to suit the ideology of the Na zis. The being as we see and know of around us is through the media and is hence is a arcminute-hand reality portrayed to us by the media owners of the society. This becomes highly ominous in face of the fact that the entire world media is owned by round 9 Conglomerates only. Hence when there is a plethora of news bytes available, the news that reaches us is what the Media channels think newsworthy. And this is just a percentage of the world news that is present around us. This ability to influence which telephone numbers, persons and topics are perceive as the most authorised of the day is called the schedule- place role of the mass media McCombs, 2004. The creation of the schedule Setting Theory happened when Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972), professors at the University of North Carolina, chapel Hill used the presidential elections of the United States of America in 1968 as a live study to investigate the relationship if existed between the measurable issues of the in the public eye(predicate) and that between the priority issues of the mass media. McCombs and Shaw were able to determine the stagecoach to which the media, in Bernard Cohens actors line, tell us (the public) what to think closely. schedule setting theory has two levels to it.The magnitude of media coverage the particular article getsHow the article or object in question has been coveredFirst Level Agenda deals with the issues present on the public, political and media domain. This is the most important area of the agendum setting research where media is seen as a highly influencing factor to the public and political issues. Second level order of business setting is much close-set(prenominal) to framing. McCombs in his study discussed how second level agenda setting is to a greater extent specific to the attributes that define the object in question. Balmas and Sheafer (2010) argued that the focus at the introductory level agenda-setting which emphasizes medias role in telling us what to think more or less is shifted to medias function of telling us how to think close to at the second level agenda-setting. The similarity between second level agenda setting and framing is that they both are related with how a particular issue is portrayed, with mildness or with sensationalization. They are generic and not the issue or object specific. However they differ on the account of intensity, since framing is a higher degree or an extension of second level agenda setting.Spiral of SilenceSpiral of Silence originates from understanding the Asch look into (1958) and the Milgram examine (1963). Asch experiment was a study on conformity. This basically measures how much former(a)wise people get pressurized into changing their opinion or hiting in line when people more powerful or in more volume than them do so. Other reasons for conforming are to not be isolated from the mass and be liked by their peer groups. The Milgram experiment tested the effects of punishment and hence understood the concepts of Obedience and Authority. These experiments examine that mass or volume opinions have a huge dissemble on individual opinions. The Spiral of Silence theory was created by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1974). state- tined opinion is the dominant opinion which compels compliance of attitude and behavior in that it threatens the dissenting individual with isolation and the politician with loss of support.In the words ofitsoriginatorElisabethNoelle-Neumann observationsmakein one context themassmedia short-circuit toan separateandencouragedpeopleeitherto proclaimtheirviewsor to drunkennessthemandkeepquiteuntil ,in aspiralingprocess,the oneview reignthepublicsceneandtheotherdisappearedfrompublicawareness asitsadherentsbecame break,thisis theprocessthatcan becalledaspiralofsilence.This basically emphasizes on how when an individual incurs they are in a minority, out of numerous fears and insecurities, they feel it better to be a part of the popular and mass opinion and hence an issue even if relevant if doesnt have anything to do with the legal age will spiral into silence. The silence of a person, who differs from the majority, spirals upwards thus forcing other people to stay silent.theory09a-789436.gifStrengthsExplains why the people remain silent when they stupefy themselves to be the minority.Explains the influence created by media over the crucial issues.Explains why people prefer to withhold their current feelings. Rather than take the risk of being isolatedExplains how the spirals of silence solve the societal conflicts.LimitationsDoes not apply alone to the field of media as the aspects of fear of isolation reprisal does not hold true in the virtual world.Questions the transparency in quantifying the majority the minority.Co-relation between Agenda Setting and Spiral of SilenceAccording to Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, the spiral of silence and the agenda setting theory go hand in hand. She intendd th at media plays a major role in forming public opinions. in that locationfore the masses shape their opinions in accordance with the media and according to her, media is the safeest bridge between these two theories.We can support the above point with the help of an example. During the Nazi period, Hitler was convinced that German laundry is far superior than anyone else on this planet. He made an extensive use of the media tools available at that time to convince the people about the same. some people believed this but there were a lot of them who did not believe in this concept of German superiority. Although they did not believe, none of them raised their utterance because of the fear of the Nazi regime and the fear of isolation. They convinced this case.Examples of Agenda Setting TheoryThe role of media in shaping public opinion about The Iraq War The marketing effort by the Bush administration to ingest support for the invasion of Iraq began to get into full swing by the f all of 2002. When Condolezza Rice, then National Security Advisor to the President, was asked a question on the case of preemptive war in a CNN interview, she said- We know that he Saddam has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the disconnectedness War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear machination than anybody thought, maybe six calendar months from a crude nuclear deviceThere will always be some uncertainty about how speedily he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we dont want the hummer gun to be a mushroom cloud.Even the President made similar remarks about Saddams WMD program less than a month later on 7th October, 2002, America must not skip the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the net proof-the smoking gun-that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.These and other such statements marked the commencement exercise of what the Cent er for Public Integrity called, spurious statements, in their 2008 report titled, Iraq-The War Card Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War.The number of false reports increased tremendously towards the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003, so did the general perception about Saddams nuclear program, suggesting a strong case for media agenda-setting.Future of Agenda Setting TheoryWith the introduction of the flat media and the internet, people have the option of following what they want without anyone forcing an opinion on them.The change in the technology and media has led to several changes in the agenda setting theory. This change is called as Agenda Mending which talks about the personal agendas of individuals vis--vis their community and group affiliations. This means that individuals join groups and blend their agendas with the agendas of the group.CriticismsAgenda Setting Theory does not take into account the personal interests of an individual. both issue considered sa lient by the media does not necessarily has to be important for the people.This theory uses a very scientific approach, therefore its not able to stand the test of scrutiny as humans are very unpredictable.