|
|
The agenda-setting approach evolved as an independent research field in communication science in the beginning of the 1970s. Research in the preceding decades focused on the impact of mass media on political attitudes. Following this approach the findings suggested only a limited impact of mass media on public opinion.
With agenda-setting media science took a completely new turn. The previously dominant question of whether or not the media dominate (mostly political) attitudes was abandoned in favour of analysis of the extent to which the media form and structure the topics that are discussed, both by the public and in the course of the political process. This change of perspective led to an abundance of empirical studies that demonstrated the agenda-setting function of mass media.
Agenda-setting research underwent a strong upturn in the 1980s and 90s leading to a multi-faceted expansion in terms of content and methodology. Nevertheless, there remain a number of requirements still to be met by agenda-setting research in our time. There are primarily four short-comings, which should be adressed during the conference:
1. Internationality of Research
In future the agenda-setting approach will have to meet the demand to investigate, more intensively, problems that go beyond the national framework. In a period of ongoing international integration of society, politics and economy, communication science also has to go beyond national boundaries.
2. Sensitivity to Cultural Differences
In an increasingly globalising world, cultural questions play an important role. There will be a significant task for agenda-setting research to analyse how the media form cultural patterns. This leads to the related question: to what extent the media in this context acts in a conflict-enhancing fashion - both within and between nations.
3. Increased Consideration of Business and Economy
Up to now agenda-setting research concentrated on political issues and neglected the media coverage of companies and managers. But in view of ongoing globalisation, media coverage of economic developments plays a central role for politics and society. Agenda-setting research therefore has to increase its efforts to cope with the production and the effects of business and finance reporting.
4. Increased Use of Timeline Studies
Agenda-setting research will increasingly have to utilize the continuous monitoring of media content. Whereas polling data is availlable in monthly and weekly series, continuous media content data is rare. But especially in the context of political elections and policy agenda-setting and forming expressive analysis is impossible without the use of long-term research. Based on these de-mands the International Conference on Agenda-Setting and Mass Media will deal with four different topics:
Election Campaigns and the Formation of Political Opinion
A central position at the conference as well as in agenda-setting research in general will be occupied by the field of politics and elections.
Discussion of these topics will benefit immensely from the utilisation of the long-term analysis of media content provided by MEDIA TENOR. Although the range of data for different countries is not uniform - there exist long-term timelines for Germany, the UK and the Czech Republic, whilst in the US, Israel and South Africa registering of data started on January 1st 2000 -this brings the opportunity of extending research beyond the boundaries of short-term and regional studies.
Media Coverage of Business and Economy
Besides politics, business and economy occupy a central position at the conference. This will take account of the relatively minor attention given to agenda-setting processes in the field of business up to now. For instance, the perception of the state of the economy by the public, and as a consequence, the level of private spending is often influenced by the media image of the economic situation. There will be a further focus on the extent to which companies can influence the formation of the media agenda, and on the other hand, to what degree decision makers in the economy are influenced by media content.
Formation of National Images
Under this heading the analysis centres on the process which the media associate different nations and what country images are thus constructed. A special example for this topic will be the relationship between Israel and its neighbour states. Following this case study the impact of conflicting cultural experiences and traditions on the construction of national images in the media will be discussed.
Racism and Hostility towards Foreigners
This topic targets the importance the clash of cultures has in our time. The coverage of different cultures shall be surveyed. The impact of media images of ‘strangers’ and on behaviour towards foreigners will be discussed. A special topic will be the charges of racism recently brought against South African media.
The conference will furthermore address the promotion of antisemitism through the international media coverage of the discussion of holocaust claims.
|
