The Agenda Setting Theory is a mass communication effects theory which states that the mass media has a huge influence on their audience by selecting the issues or stories they consider newsworthy or important to be discussed. This implies that the mass media transfer salient issues that sets the agenda of public discussions. This theory assumes that the issues the mass media lays emphasis on are the ones that the audience would consider as important and therefore pay attention to.
One criticism against this theory is that the mass media is that people are not the same as the theorists assumes. However some individuals may not pay attention to what is being covered by the media and therefore miss important details. Such a person may discuss issues but they might not be the ones that are propounded by the media. People who are conservative or partial to a particular issue may not be moved by the effect of the media agenda setting. This is due to the fact that such people have already made up their mind about a particular issue and may not be swayed by the agendas set by the media.
Also, the environment in which the media sets this agenda can be a factor that makes it ineffective. If there is unrest, strife and other factors that weakens the media's ability to set agenda, this theory becomes baseless. For example in a conservative Islamic society, the media in an attempt to promote a Christian value would fail drastically as the environment is not condusive enough.
The Agenda Setting theory is a great theory which is am improvement of the stereotyped Magic Bullet theory but like anything else it doesn't come without its weaknesses.
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