Agenda-Setting and the Presidential Election

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The mass media is the most influential way to affect the public’s vision of the definite problem or situation because all the important global and local events are framed and discussed by the mass media according to the journalists’ visions. Thus, people learn that these issues and events are important because the mass media pay attention to them. As a result, the public is inclined to form its opinion in relation to the information and viewpoints presented by the media. The mass communication’s function of forming the public’s opinion and drawing the people’s attention to the definite issues is known as agenda-setting. The role of agenda-setting becomes really significant in the situation of the presidential elections when voters focus on the issues which are not only important for them personally but also promoted as significant by the mass media. Thus, it is important to discuss the effects of the mass media agenda-setting on the voters’ opinion basing on the example of the US presidential elections in 2012.

Citizens always know what social, economic or political issues are important for them and what issues require their further discussion. However, it is important to note that priorities in relation to this or that issue are often determined not by the public but by the mass media (Baran, 2013). The accentuation of the certain issues in the candidates’ campaigns with the help of the mass media can affect the voters’ attitude to the definite problems significantly. Thus, during the candidates’ campaigns in 2012, it was important to balance between the most controversial issues of the foreign policy and the role of the USA in regulating the conflicts over the globe or participating in them and the economic question which was more important for the public according to their own visions (Presidential debates, 2012).

From this point, the coverage of these issues in the mass media varied in relation to the public’s moods toward the candidates. However, the process was interdependent because definite provocative issues associated with the economic life or foreign policy accentuated according to the mass communication’s visions. Thus, it was almost impossible to ignore the emphasis made by the media on these two issues which became even more obvious during the candidates’ debates.

The mass media is the effective tool to portray candidates and their positions in the definite light. The approaches used by the mass media to discuss the candidates’ positions and current issues can be different according to the goals of the media (McCombs, Shaw & Weaver, 1997). The problem is in the fact that voters can conclude about the positions and programs of the candidates only basing on the information presented in the media. There are no direct ways to learn about the candidates’ visions even when they participate in debates because the discussion is affected by the situation of televised debates.

As a result, all the information provided in the mass media is filtered, and the accents are made according to the needs of the media. For instance, many female voters, especially in the swing states, concentrated on the issue of abortion during the debates of 2012 because this issue was effectively accentuated in the states’ and local media (Women in swing states, 2012). It is possible to speak about the importance of this issue for women in the USA, but it is also necessary to pay attention to the context in which the issue was presented by the media during the campaigns.

The importance of the issue is often determined with references to the frequency of discussing it in the news. For instance, if unemployment is the problem which can be observed by the public in relation to the everyday life, the questions of the foreign policy can be discussed by citizens only with references to the news. Thus, the information presented in the mass media during the elections’ campaigns of 2012 affected the voters’ attitudes and their priorities. Healthcare and Medicare issues were the key questions for discussions in the media during the first part of 2012.

Many problems associated with the issues were not solved during the year. However, these topics were inactively discussed in the news during the second part of the year. The accents were made on unemployment, economy, and taxes. As a result, the voters made their decisions with references to their sharing the position of this or that candidate in relation to these issues (Obama leads in three crucial swing states, 2012). However, the problematic question with Medicare was not resolved and was still urgent, but not discussed in the media. The points which were actively discussed in the news during the second part of the year became the key issues influential for the development of the candidates’ campaigns.

Voters can be significantly influenced in their choices by the mass media because of the impossibility to analyze the positions of the candidates without references to any mass communication. Thus, the role of mass media agenda-setting is significant because the public receives the opportunity to determine the importance of social, political, and economic issues only according to this concept.

References

Baran, S. J. (2013). Introduction to mass communication: Media literacy and culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

McCombs, M.E., Shaw, D.L., & Weaver, D.L. (1997). Communication and democracy: Exploring the intellectual frontiers in agenda-setting theory. USA: Routledge.

Obama leads in three crucial swing states. (2012). Web.

Presidential debates. (2012). Web.

Women in swing states have gender-specific priorities. (2012). Web.

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