The initial idea on which the agenda-setting theory according to McCombs and Shaw (1972) was based was that the media could only tell us what to think but not what to think. McCombs and Shaw later (in 1993) highlighted with other research that the mass media tell us not only what to think but also how to think and, consequently, what to think . Therefore, the mass media shape people's minds especially if they use them frequently and have limited access to the real environment. For people living in conditions of partial social, economic and cultural isolation, the topics covered by the media may be much more important than they actually are.
The two levels of agenda setting
McComs and Shaw modified their assessment by admitting that agenda-setting influences the entire thinking of those exposed to the media. Agenda-setting theory is thus structured on two levels. The first level concerns the salience that the mass media gives to news, that is, the attempt to shift the importance of an issue from a private agenda (political or media) to the agenda of public opinion. The second level concerns the impact this salience has on recipients ( audiences ) in relation to their predispositions, attitudes, and ability to process messages.
Sociologist Rolando Marini also highlighted the influence that the most authoritative media have on other media in determining the agenda.
"The fact of focusing on certain issues at a given moment and then shifting attention to other issues is therefore the result of what is called 'intermedia agenda setting', that is, the agreement that arises through the interaction between media, even if they are different. [...] Agenda setting speaks to us of the fallacies of journalistic activity, for example, the inadequacy with which the mass media system reports to the public events of great importance for democracy, such as election campaigns; the superficiality with which (especially television) it treats certain issues such as crime or terrorism; and, last but not least, the indifference with which it ignores very worrying, even tragic, aspects of social reality, rendering them invisible. It speaks to us of a partiality in the representation of reality that is transferred into people's minds and which, through its shortcomings, thus shapes the culture of the public in contemporary society."
This reflection should open our eyes to the real power of the media, which through various techniques, create a hierarchy among the distributed information and in this way massively influence our way of thinking.
Rino Carfora
