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Agenda Setting Theory

Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw

Chapter 28
Mass Communication—Media Effects

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Theory Overview

Abstracts appear in Appendix A of the 7th Edition

The media tell us (1) what to think about, and (2) how to think about it. The first process (agenda setting) transfers the salience of items on their news agenda to our agenda. The second process (framing) transfers the salience of selected attributes to prominence among the pictures in our heads. (Socio-psychological tradition)

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