Apologies & Agendas

I think we've all gathered by now that I fail terribly at keeping promises. So I have decided that from here on out, I will no longer promise anything (apart from, you know, my promise not to keep promises. Following?). Who knows, maybe the spontaneity of my posts will keep people on their toes and... yeah, I've got nothing. Let's just see what happens, shall we?

Lecture 9
"The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about" - Bernard Cohen


This week's lecture was all about the confusion between reality and the media's version of reality. The media's job is to present us with facts on issues from all around the world. However, newspapers almost always have an agenda spurring their articles.
We learnt about the four following types:

1. Public Agenda
2. Policy Agenda
3. Corporate Agenda
4. Media Agenda

They're all pretty self-explanatory. Throughout the lecture I noticed that one thing in particular was repeated over and over, and can sum up the lecture very neatly: the more coverage a story receives, the more important it is deemed by the public.Not only that, but journalists filter and shape reality in order for their story to fit perfectly.

Another major part of our lecture focused on the Agenda Setting Family:

1. Media Gatekeeping (individual control of stories and their release)
2. Media Advocacy (purposeful promotions)
3. Agenda Cutting (serious issues taking a backseat to minor stories - e.g. Brangelina's wedding)
4. Agenda Surfing (stories that follow the crows - e.g. KONY)
5. Diffusion of News (how, where & when a story is released)
6. Portrayal of an issue (e.g. Muslims and Aboriginals)
7. Media Dependence (more dependence = more susceptibility)

As effective as this system may seem, it doesn't always work. People can be ignorant of details and therefore brush stories aside.Sometimes, a large group have already made up their mind about a certain subject and that would therefore weaken the impact. Also, as much as some journalist would love it to be true, we cannot create problems, nor can we conceal them. 

Here's an article I found from last year, talking about Julia Gillard and some of the political action she's taken and how how agenda has affected those stories:

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3272258.htm

The lecture on agenda setting was one of our last. You'd think that after all these weeks, that we would get bored of lectures on various journalism aspects, but apparently there's a lot to learn and it's all good stuff. 

And for the few people who have told me I disappointed them (not sure whether you were joking or not, actually), here's something to cheer you up:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/If-youre-feeling-down-heres-a-picture-of-a-shaved-llama/212205482177637

Until next time!