McCOMBS READING AGENDA SETTING Most of what we know comes second or third hand from the media Voters learn from the immense quantity of information available during each campaign On any subject matter many hear but few listen People learn in direct proportion to the emphasis placed on campaign issues by mass media Focusing on the agenda setting function of the media o Forces attention to certain issues o Build up public image of figures o What individuals should think about know about have feelings about Mass media set the agenda for each political campaign o Influencing the salience of attitudes toward the political issues Method Chapel Hill voters 1968 presidential campaign Attempted to match what voters said were key issues with the actual mass media content o Respondents selected randomly from list of registered voters in 5 precincts Economic social racial representative of the community 100 interviews were completed Selected by filter question those who hadn t decided yet how to vote Asked each respondent to outline key issues as they saw them o Mass media content was analyzed concurrently Answers coded into 15 categories representing key issues o Media news content divided into major and minor levels Findings Who is most affected by agenda setting Relevance of information uncertainty concerning subject moderating factors o Higher need for orientation o Susceptibility to agenda setting effects goes up News not only tells us what issues to think about but also how to think about these issues Media Framing Central organizing idea for news o Selection o Emphasis o Exclusion o Elaboration Considerable amount of campaign news was not devoted to discussion of the major political issues rather analysis of the campaign itself Minor item emphasis closely paralleled major item emphasis Media appear to have exerted impact on voter judgment of what were major issues Data suggests very strong relationship between emphasis placed on different campaign issues by the media and judgment of voters as to the salience and importance of topics o Voters pay attention to all political news regardless of candidate covered Discussion Agenda setting hypothesis Salience of affect how affective was each person when describing issues and candidates o Answers were classified by coders Cognitive style also influences patterns of information seeking Salience of affect will locate differences in the communication behaviors of voters o Efficacy of salience of affect as a predictor of media use High salience tends to block use of communication media to acquire further information about issues with high personal importance ROMER TELEVISION NEWS AND THE CULTIVATION OF FEAR AND CRIME Violent crime was an important issue to Americans even though crime was dropping in the 1990 Does polling data reflect the mugging of America not by violent crime but by tv news accounts of it Competing Theories Cultivation Theory assumption that prime time television portrays a world more filled with menace than the one most of us inhabit Fails to take into account intervening variables Fails to account for selective viewing o Only qualified support weak correlations or no significant effects Local news coverage most Americans source of news Relies heavily on sensational coverage of crime and other mayhem o Particular emphasis on homicide and violence Especially relevant for the public s view of crime o Cultivates expectations that victimization is both likely and beyond our control People rely on available instances in memory to form generalizations and make judgments Television exposure hypothesis o Increased perceived personal likelihood of criminal victimization o Increased perceived importance as a political problem Diffusion of Fear Through Social Networks Alternative to cultivation theory people use their personal experience or other s in their social network experiences to decide whether they should be concerned about crime Interpersonal diffusion hypothesis o Coverage of crime on tv news reflect prevailing levels of crime in region o IF high crime areas watch more tv relation between local news viewing and fear of crime could result Television exposure hypothesis o Repeated exposure to stories showing ubiquitous and unpredictable crime can affect judgments of both personal and societal risk Social Comparison Hypothesis o Whether or not crime coverage is locally relevant to the audience Perceptions of crime risk are formed by comparing one s home region with other places o Exposure to local tv news should increase personal risk perceptions o Viewers form judgments of personal risk based on a comparison between perceived crime at the local level and other areas Tests of Television News Influence 3 studies that allowed testing of the various hypothesis NRS National Risk Survey is a probability survey conducted in 1997 o Examine the relation between exposure to various news sources and assessments of crime risks as well as a host of other risks covered by the media GSS assess perceptions of personal crime risk in both central and suburb areas Random sample of residents variation in concerns about crime within a large city and to relate this variation to police reports of crime at the neighborhood level Study 1 Method Survey conducted over the telephone Households 18 or older Recently celebrated a birthday Asked to evaluate personal risk to themselves and families 13 environmental risks o One was violent crime Also evaluate risk to American public as a whole o Recorded using a 1 4 scale Almost no risk Slight risk Moderate risk High risk Results Respondents viewed various crime related risks as the most serious threats Drug risk Multiple sex partners Violent crime Local tv was a significant predictor of crime risk perceptions Raises perceived risk of crime Risks were perceived to extend beyond those that just affect general public Method 36 of the largest metropolitan areas Measured perceived risk of crime victimization Study 2 o Are you afraid of walking alone at night in your neighborhood o Linked each area with FBI crime data Assessment of local television news reporting Proportion of time spent on crime stories o 7 high coverage cities o 5 low coverage cities Results Fear was higher in the cities than the suburbs Rise in fear was greater in cities than suburbs Cities fear increased independent of crime rates Suburbs with high crime rates fear actually declined o Have higher level of fear than suburbs High crime coverage