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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
8 pages in length. The transformation steadily taking place in contemporary mass media has many concerned over the compromised duality of effectiveness and accuracy. Indeed, as the gatekeepers of democracy, mass media have not necessarily displayed the ethical fortitude inherent to such a position of power, but rather the extent to which exploitation and sensationalism have overtaken the fundamental basis of truthful reporting speaks to ever-changing values upheld throughout the industry. Bibliography lists 9 sources.
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8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: LM1_TLCMassM.rtf
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displayed the ethical fortitude inherent to such a position of power, but rather the extent to which exploitation and sensationalism have overtaken the fundamental basis of truthful reporting speaks to
ever-changing values upheld throughout the industry. II. MEDIA COVERAGE: A NECESSARY EVIL Words carry with them a great deal of power; they
are capable of destroying nations and rebuilding faith. They are eloquent and strong, intimidating and potent. Language serves many purposes but of its many overwhelming influences, none are
as significant as its ability to impart information. The theory of agenda setting asserts that mass media do not tell people outright what they should think; instead, the basis
of spotlighting certain issues is to tell people what to think about. Clearly, one might not readily comprehend the seemingly insignificant difference between the two thoughts, inasmuch as some
believe that mass media have long acted as social dictator when it comes to providing biased information. The theory of agenda setting - which "focuses on the cognitive, indirect
effects of the mass media" (Matthews et al, 2002) - is said to represent mass medias position as societys "gatekeeper," meaning that television, magazines and newspapers collectively determine "which items
of information hold significance for society" (Tenorio, 2002), thereby deciding which social and political issues are worthy of attention and establishing an unnatural prominence of topics. "...Increase salience of
a topic or issue in the mass media influences (causes) a salience of that topic or issue among the public" (McCombs et al, 1991, p. 12).
Many mass communications scholars chose to focus upon agenda setting research as an alternative to looking for individual-level directional media effects - which had often been found
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