Before looking at the research, it is first important to look at the theory that surrounds agen

allowed me to view ten issues of the USA Today, while I looked in each issue for an article regarding the war in Iraq. I chose to look at the USA Today because I felt that it would best cover the issue because of the fact that it is a national newspaper, and would hence present the articles in the most informed and unbiased fashion. While performing my research I would not only look for headlines based on the war in Iraq, but I would also look for articles that mentioned the war without the war being the main focus of the article. I felt that this was important because it better showed the media’s attempt to pump the issue into the minds of it’s readers.

When choosing the issue to view, I first thought of the war in Iraq because of the fact that it was a very important issue in the world today. I did realize that one problem I would run across with my research is that I was not viewing the issue at the beginning of when it became a significant issue. This would cause a problem, because I could not see if it was run as the first story when it was first being run. I began my research on Monday, November 4, 2002, and concluded my viewing of the newspaper on Friday,

Upon finishing my research, I had come to the conclusion that the newspaper USA Today does in fact use agenda setting to influence the public opinion. I also determined that the placement of articles, and what is written in the articles follows a trend that plays a major factor in the agenda setting theory. Yet I also concluded that the power of agenda setting may not be as powerful as I once thought. While the paper’s attempts to set the agenda were successful, it became clear to me that half the work in agenda setting is done by the public and their acceptance of the agenda that is being set. A lot of my findings were supported by earlier research done by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in the early and mid 1970’s. In their study entitled the Charlotte Study, they concluded two different things. One is that the media are more likely to have a stronger effect in determining the public’s agenda than vice-versa. The second discovered that there is a limitation on the effect of the agenda setting, and that there is a need for orientation in the agenda setting set up, which is a need that is based on the relevance of the information to the public and how certain public is about the subject. (Background Studies on Agenda Setting, 2002). While agenda setting may be dependent on the public, it is nonetheless a very effective tool, and a tool that through my research I feel, I a commonly used tool in the media today.

November 15, 2002. (Excluding Saturday and Sunday editions of the newspaper.) This

Some topics in this essay:
Media Politics, Iyengar Kinder, Research Findings, , Iraq Expected, Political Issues, Iraq Anti-American, agenda setting, Charlotte Study, Agenda Setting, McCombs Shaw, war iraq, step process, placement articles, issue article, articles regarding issue, articles regarding, opinion war, ability control, issue war, regarding issue, issue war iraq, idea agenda setting, using step process, power agenda setting,