Classical Interpretation of Agenda Setting Function

1) Communication effects are divided into cognitive, attitudinal and action levels, and the agenda-setting function hypothesis is the initial stage of this process, i.e., the cognitive level. 2) The agenda-setting function examines the medium- and long-term, comprehensive and macro social effects produced by a series of reporting activities in the overall mass communication with a long time span. 3) The agenda-setting function implies that the communication media is an institution engaged in "environment recomposition operations.

3) The agenda-setting function implies that the media is an organization that engages in "environmental reconstruction". The agenda-setting "0/1" effect, "0/1/2" and "0/1/2/n" three communication effects, "0/1" effect refers to the mass media's "0/1" effect, "0/1" effect refers to the mass media's "0/1" effect. The "0/1" effect refers to the fact that the mass media's coverage or non-coverage of a certain "issue" will affect the public's perception of a few issues. The "0/1/2" effect refers to the fact that the highlighting of a few issues by the media will cause the public to pay more attention to these issues. The "0/1/2/,,/n" effect refers to the varying degrees of coverage given by the media to a range of issues in a certain order of priority, which affects the public's judgment of the order of importance of these issues.

The agenda-setting theory (the agenda-setting theory), developed by the American communication scholar Maxwell McCombs, is a theory of media coverage. The agenda-setting theory was developed by American communication scholars Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. Shaw

There is a lot more information on the Internet than in traditional media, but that doesn't mean that there is a lot more valuable information, and it doesn't mean that everything posted on the Internet becomes an issue. Many online media report on the same event in the same way, and online speech is too diffuse. The proliferation of information makes it difficult to read, and information that is meaningful may not get the attention of the audience and has no further possibility to become an issue, and a lot of information that should have become an issue is lost in the mass of junk information.

(2) Distortion of issues. The release of information in the network has a great deal of freedom and arbitrariness, and lacks the necessary filtering, quality control and management mechanisms. Many messages on the Internet are unverified, and in forums or chat rooms, people have access to a variety of different voices. The audience's distrust of online news is often greater than that of traditional media, seriously affecting the communication effect and the realization of the function of guiding public opinion.

In the United States, the very famous personal news website "Drudge Report" often launches "exclusive reports" before other authoritative media, such as the earliest report on the Clinton and Lewinsky scandal, although some of them are true, but a considerable part of them are false or inaccurate. is false or inaccurate. Some people have done a survey, from January to October 1998, Drudge launched 51 self-proclaimed "exclusive reports", of which only 31 were real exclusive reports. Of these 31 scoops, 32% were "untrue" or "never happened", another 32% were of questionable accuracy or untested, and only 36% were true. If this is true of a "famous" Web site, it is even less true of the news and information provided by a wide variety of individual Web sites and pages.

(3) The proliferation of pornography. While the Internet has brought great convenience to human life, it is also like opening Pandora's box, with its negative impact becoming increasingly obvious. Pornographic culture on the Internet has developed at an alarming rate and has now penetrated almost every corner of cyberspace. A 1997 survey by a Taiwan-based Internet research firm showed that 50% of the top 30 most popular Web sites in Taiwan were pornographic, and students accounted for 75% of the visitors.

A major reason for the prevalence of pornographic Web sites is the drive for commercial profits. These pornographic and obscene things have seriously corrupted the social atmosphere, and teenagers are undoubtedly the biggest victims. Teenagers are still in the early stages of socialization, poor judgment and self-restraint, and at the same time, curiosity and strong, exposure to network pornography will cause great harm to their healthy growth, and even towards degeneration and crime. What is worrying is that due to technical reasons, pornography on the Internet cannot yet be effectively controlled.

Countermeasures to Strengthen the Agenda-Setting Function of the Internet

(1) Enhance the Authority of Internet Media

Internet communication seems to be inherently deficient in authority, and good social reputation is one of the basic conditions for the existence and development of Internet media, and without authority, how can we talk about the agenda-setting function of Internet media? People are more willing to obtain information and confirm their views from authoritative media, and their dependence on authoritative media is even more obvious when multiple media cause contradictory information. To enhance its authority, online media must filter and confirm the authenticity of online information, form its own advantages in terms of formality, authority and representativeness of reporting, and win the trust of specific audience groups in the process of long-term development. Truth is the life of news, and this saying is equally applicable to online news. News reports must be true, is the first professional ethics requirements for network journalists, but also the network media in the competition to win the fundamental guarantee.

(2) Enhance the function of the gatekeeper

The concept of "gatekeeper" was first proposed by Kurt Lewin, one of the founders of communication science. Later, communication scholars White further put forward: there is a large amount of news material in society, the mass media news coverage is not and can not be "heard and recorded", but a selection process. In this process, the media organization forms a "gate" through which the news that reaches the audience is only a few of the many news materials. On the Web, Web editors and moderators are the main gatekeepers. They play a role in the information collection, processing, production, dissemination of the entire process, the network gatekeeper to abide by the principle of "objective, fair and true", to minimize false, pornographic and garbage information in the network communication activities in the circulation, so that the dissemination of information along the healthy track development. Sohu Chief Executive Officer Zhang Chaoyang said: "At present, Sohu carries a huge flow of traffic and social requirements for our major responsibilities. We have close to 200 million page downloads every day, how I say my words, how to place them in order, which picture to do the title picture, the views expressed in these minor points will have a significant impact on society. I am well aware of our great responsibility, and we must have the conscience to serve the society and respect people's livelihood. An article that is hotly debated but contrary to public morality placed in a prominent position is enough to make the click-through rate go up, but it is not what a responsible media that cares about people's livelihood should do."

(3) Improving the overall level of Internet users

Due to the lack of an effective unified management mechanism, the position of gatekeepers in online communication activities has declined compared with that of traditional media, and no longer occupies an absolutely dominant position, whereas audiences have unprecedented power: not only are they free to choose the information that they are interested in, but also free to post information online. Whether information is important or not is no longer entirely up to the communicator, but can be decided by the audience itself, which realizes the agenda-setting function through the right to choose and the right to take the initiative.

The biggest problem faced by online audiences is not the lack of information, but how to sift through information and make correct evaluations of various reports. Due to different social backgrounds and education levels, the discernment and judgment of netizens are uneven, so it is especially important to improve the overall level of netizens, consciously abide by and maintain the rules of the Internet, and physically assume the responsibility of gatekeeping.

(4) Moral and legal construction

On the one hand, the Internet media should insist on guiding people with correct public opinion, promote healthy and positive outlook on life and values through agenda-setting, handle the relationship between social and economic benefits, abide by the professional morality and ethics, and do a good job of media self-regulation.

On the other hand, in order to produce the necessary binding force, morality needs the cooperation of relevant laws. Legal means are the most powerful and authoritative means of social control, and without the support of the law, moral construction will be weak. At the same time, the global nature of the Internet determines that the legislation of a particular country alone cannot solve the international problem of network communication, and a unified legal framework should be formulated globally, *** with the same compliance, joint action, in order to ensure the healthy development of the Internet and the safe and smooth flow.