Maria Margarita Rule (analysis)

SETTING THE AGENDA

- is a agenda-setting theory of mass communication effects build on Lippmann’s notion of media impact by distinguishing between what we know about or cognition and refers to our opinions and feelings or predisposition.

- it is controlling an agenda to maximize the probability of getting a favorable outcome. As many social choice procedures have the property that a given set of preferences can lead to different outcomes if votes are taken in a different order, there is often scope for manipulative agenda setting. The phrase is also used more broadly for efforts to change the political agenda by adding or subtracting issues.

- In summary, mass communication can affect public opinion by raising the salience of issues and position taken by people and groups in the news.

- There are two concepts in agenda-setting theory and research that are especially useful in public relations:

1. Issue salience
– determines the prominence and penetration the issue has with the audience, or how will it resonates with each public.
- it means that people who shows interests on a given issue, was more active in participating or giving their ideas and opinion.

2. Cognitive priming
– describes the personal experience or connection someone has with an issue.
- it means if the person has no personal experience on a issue, he will always depend on media information and the agenda-setting effect become weak. Because they cannot contribute any ideas and opinions.


DIFFUSING INFORMATION AND INNOVATION
- Sources may come from different social, economic, and educational backgrounds but are accessible through the media. Once people get information from the media, however, they enter conversations armed with useful new information.

- The mass media’s most powerful effect on diffusion is that it spreads knowledge of innovations to a large audience rapidly. It can even lead to changes in weakly held attitudes. But strong interpersonal ties are usually more effective in the formation and change of strongly held attitudes.

- The diffusion of an innovation is the spread of a product, process, or idea perceived as new, through communication channels, among the members of a social system over time. Innovations can be a new product or output, a new process or way of doing something, or a new idea or concept. The “newness” of an innovation is subjective, determined by the potential adopter.
- A key concept in understanding the nature of the diffusion process is the critical mass, which occurs at the point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation's further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining.
- Diffusion and adaptation processes illustrate the impact that mass communication has on interpersonal communication and networks.

For example:
A prominent bank was closed due to economic crisis. When it was reported to television, the issue becomes worst. The owner of the bank had to face all his clients and made an action on how he will repay all the saving accounts of their clients.


DEFINING SOCIAL SUPPORT

- the spiral of silence theory suggests a phenomenon referred to as “ the silent majority.”
Individuals who think their opinion conflicts with the opinions of most other people tend
to remain silent on an issue.

-The spiral of silence begins with fear of reprisal or isolation, and escalates from there. Individuals use what is described as "an innate ability" or quasi-statistical sense to gauge public opinion. Mass media plays a large part in determining what the dominant opinion is, since our direct observation is limited to a small percentage of the population. Mass media has an enormous impact on how public opinion is portrayed, and can dramatically impact an individual's perception about where public opinion lies, whether or not that portrayal is factual.

- The theory explains a vocal minority by stating that people who are highly educated, or who have greater affluence, and the few other cavalier individuals who do not fear isolation, are likely to speak out regardless of public opinion. It further states that this minority is a necessary factor of change while the compliant majority is a necessary factor of stability, with both being a product of evolution.

- Media coverage can reflect, enforce, or challenge the spiral of silence effect on public opinion.
- Mass media messages can provide individuals pictures of their social environment, of whether there is social approval or disapproval of their views or actions. This sociocultural model of communication effects suggests that "messages presented via the mass media may provide the appearance of consensus regarding orientation and action with respect to a given object or goal of persuasion."


For example:

Pollsters probing this dimension of public opinion ask respondents to report their impressions of what significant others think about an issue or to estimate the distribution of public opinion on the issue under study.