The Agenda Setting Theory Applied to the Missing Malaysian Airplane
Chelsea Elliott
COMM 200-02
Professor Yudelson
California State University, Channel Islands
Every morning, my parents would wake up and turn on the news so they could listen and watch current events while they got ready for the day. For some people, this could be a normal daily routine. News is an important part of our society. It helps people stay informed of what is going on locally, nationally, and internationally. The media coverage allows people to learn about other countries and what important events are going on in the world outside of our own. Without the news, we would never hear about differences in government, societies, and events going on all around the world. However, the news does not always portray the entire story and can mislead the audiences to understanding which event is more important compared to others. The Agenda Setting Theory addresses these faults in media coverage and its effects on the public. As shown in the media coverage of the missing Malaysian airplane, news coverage will alter in favor of its targeted audience due to cultural differences in other countries.
On March 8th 2014, worldwide news occurred making international history. This day marks the day that the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) lost contact with one of their planes. It has been missing since. According the CNN news, the flight that went missing, also known as Flight 370, was carrying two hundred and thirty-nine passengers including crewmembers. It left from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia airport and was intended to arrive in Beijing, China. An hour after take-off, the plane lost communication connection with air traffic control. After the plan...
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New York Times article “China Plans Its First Unmanned Moon Landing This Year” by Chris Buckley on august 28, 2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/asia/china-plans-first-unmanned-landing-on-moon.html?_r=0
The two key terms “agenda setting” and “gotcha” journalism are going to be used within this paper to show you how politicians and news organizations try to persuade the public. The “agenda setting” is a term that “involves using the news to influence what the public regards as important for them to think about in society and politics.” (Bennett, Lance pg. 23) This is a major tool for news organizations or politicians to seek a public relation toward a certain aspect that they’re addressing their agenda and framing it to formulate their partisan viewpoints. Now for “gotcha” jour...
Millions of people around the world have been impacted by the blunder of Malaysia Flight 370, but what actually happened? A normal Boeing 777 aircraft does not just disappear every day, and Malaysia Flight 370 seemed to do just that. Many wonder how an ordinary Boeing 777 carrying 227 international passengers can go missing in a blink of an eye (“Malaysia Flight 370”). Some think it was a contretemps, yet some think it was an intricate terrorist attack. Malaysia Flight 370 made a huge impact on the plane industry, and affected millions of people throughout the United States.
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
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Malaysia airlines Flight 370 was scheduled to fly from Kuala Lumpur International, To Beijing capital airport in china. The airplane operated by Malaysia airlines, the last communication they had was around 1:19 on march 8th, it was over the south china sea a little less than one whole hour after take off. The airplane disappeared from air gps tracker radars at about 1:22 that day. But flight 370 was still being seen on military radar as it went off track from its flight track, and crossed to the Malaysian peninsula. It left all range about 2:22 over the Andaman Sea. 200 miles north-west of Penang, and north west Malaysia. The airplane carried 12 Malaysians crew, 227 passengers from atlas 15 different nations.
On March 8, 2014, 227 passengers gleefully walked onto Malaysia Flight 370, not knowing what would come of this adventure. It was an ordinary plane, a Boeing 777 with six seats across each row. When the pilot was ready to take off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and head to Beijing, China, the passengers had no idea what they were in for. While the plane was orderly and on a similar routine to any other plane, the first class was extravagantly different.
One way in which government achieves this objective, is by its ability to misuse the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, media is in fact an enormous hegemony. In fact, separate independent news organizations do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of their own, generally lesser smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media functions in adherence to the characteristics of a hierarchy.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 - Flight MH370 was carrying 239 passengers on board on 8 March 2014 and was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when air control staff lost contact with the flight.
Ng, Teddy. “Rise of China’s Military and Economic Power Leaves the Rest of the World Wary.” South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post Publishers. 20 Sep 2012. Web. 10 Mar 2014.
McCombs and Shaw fully developed the theory of agenda setting in respect to public agenda in a study in the early 1970’s. Their cross-sectional study involved the effects of media agenda setting on public opinion. They revealed that there were indeed correlations between the two, which backed the ideas of Cohen (Brosius 5). They derived that, “the basic agenda-setting hypothesis asserts that the issues and information presented on the media agenda become over time the issues and information on the public agenda (Leckenby).
Agenda setting in the media comes into play once again, influencing the viewers on which issues to think about daily. It is vital that environmental communication specialists work with journalists and reporters to frame environmental events in ways that are not biased; encouraging people to think on many levels. As this study conveys, those who not only watch one-sourced news, but also discuss political matters on their own terms with others are more sophisticated, and less likely to be persuaded by the media. Researchers in the field need to continue to conjure ways to keep the public focused on detrimental issues, while keeping them updated on several different mediated outlets, not just their news
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.