CRITICISM OF THE AGENDA SETTING THEORY

Agenda Setting is the media's attempt to create and transfer salient issues into the public domain to enable the public to discuss,deliberate or debate on these issues to make informed decisions. Basically,Agenda Setting talks about how the mass media pay attention or highlight certain issues while neglecting others.This theory fails to address certain pertinent issues which I proceed to discuss.

The Agenda Setting theory assumes that if people are exposed to the same media contents,they will place importance on the same issues.This assumption is not true.People have different frames of reference, and therefore what one may consider important after filtering the issues through his frame of reference is different from the other person's.People are therefore not always likely to place importance on the same issues even if they are all exposed to the same media content.

Secondly,this theory fails to consider the personal interest of the individual.Any issue considered salient by the mass media and put in the public domain will not necessarily be considered salient by the public.The audience consciously choose a media product that gives him gratification or that addresses his needs,and it is such issues he may consider to be salient.This theory assumes that once the media considers any issue to be salient and give it dominance,the public automatically regards the issue as salient.The public only considers such issues salient if they personally have interest in them.In such situation,one cannot claim that the issues are considered salient by the audience simply because the media regard them as salient,but rather because they serve the interest of the public.

The Agenda Setting theory uses a very scientific approach,not humanistic,and therefore in practical terms it is not able to stand the test of scrutiny since human beings are known to be very unpredictable.Nonetheless,it is a very useful theory in the effect tradition of the mass media.