The train/plane test

In chapter 29 the train/plane test was interesting. The German Public Opinion Research Center found a way to see if people are willing to speak out in favor of their own opinion. There were six factors that determined the likelihood of this happening. If the opinion is with the majority they will voice their opinion. The willingness to speak out depends on future trends. Those who share the same thoughts are willing to speak out. Those who remain silent have low-self esteem. Middle and Upper class along with young adults and males are more incline to speak out. Last, laws support those who express their opinions even if they are the minority.

As I continued to read the chapter and went over the critique, one of the flaws was that the train/plane test uses a hypothetical situation to measure the willingness to speak out. It has been suggested that they use observation methods instead of hypothetical situations. This makes sense. It would be interesting to see if the observation method proved the same six factors of likelihood to speak. I believe the factors would change.

Agenda - Setting Theory

With the presidential campaign so close to elections chapter 28 shed some insight to the mass media reporting of this campaign. The agenda-setting theory of McCombs and Shaw hypothesis is defined by Griffin (2009) as, “the mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda” (359). This morning on Good Morning America there was a segment on undecided voters and the impact the media has had on their subconscious. It was really interesting because the participants were asked if they though McCain was too old to run the country. They all stated “no” but when they took an online quiz and all of the participant’s scores demonstrated the word old and McCain were correlated. The same held true for Obama. When the participant’s were asked if they believe Obama has terrorist/Muslim ties they all replied “no” and again after the quiz there was a correlation between Obama, terrorist, and Muslim. There have been many stories about both of these issues regarding the candidates that the media has reported. After watching this segment on Good Morning America, I have to say that I am inclined to think that the media do present a picture in our head and we derive our opinions by these pictures. What do you think?

Interview with McCombs

The last comment McCombs made during his interview, “Most journalists are messenger-producers, they are not communicators”, was a real eye opener. I never thought of journalists in that way but once you think about it, it’s true. McCombs made several comments that I feel need to be mentioned. The agenda-setting function of the media had a catchy phrase, “the media don’t tell us what to think but they do tell us what to think about”. The first part of this phrase no longer holds true. There is now a second level to the agenda-setting function. The second level consists of what are the pictures because our attitude and opinion come from that picture. This is really important because the premise is that the media can influence how we think and sometimes what we do.