Framing – Week 2

Agenda setting is said to come from “the traditions of journalism, the daily interactions among news organizations, and the continuous interactions of new organizations with numerous sources and their agendas,  especially including policy makers in government.” How do we stop small stories from turning into a media circus? It seems like small stories are being escalated way beyond what is necessary because if one TV station runs the story, then all of them have to. Then newspapers write stories, then magazines, blogs, etc. Then, some of the bigger stories seem to get left behind because of this escalation of something else. How do we create a balance?

The knowledge gap hypothesis: “As the infusion of mass media information into a social system increase, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.” How do we level the playing field? What would be the best theories to study and research methods to use to get started?

It seems to me that media is becoming too commercialized. The commodification of culture theory treats information as a commodity to sell instead of a right of knowledge. How can we make adjustments in society so that not all information turns into a product to sell?

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