Agenda Setting and Framing

                 According to Griffin, agenda setting refers to the mass media having the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda. (2009, p.359). From my understanding, newspaper can be an example where the top news that has been predicted to have a large number of viewers will be placed at the front page.

                 Agenda Setting has two levels.  As mentioned in Theories of Communication, the first level enacts the  common subjects that are most important, and the second level decides what parts of the subject are important. These two levels of agenda setting lead path into what is the function of this concept. The first part of the process is the importance of the issues that are going to be discussed is the media agenda. Second, the issues discussed in the media have an impact over the way the public thinks, this is referred as public agenda. Ultimately the public agenda influences the policy agenda. Furthermore “ the media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda.” (Littlejohn, p.320, 2002)


               Therefore agenda setting is used for many purposes to establish the media agenda and to retrieve the opinion of the public. As stated by McCombs, Maxwell and Donald (1977, p.39) agenda setting is very important in the political aspect because the public agenda influences the policy agenda which means that candidates will try to focus on issues that the public wants to hear about. In conclusion the agenda setting theory has many beneficial uses in our society and it is part of our communication.


            During our lecture with Chris, we were asked to solve a   problem about country ’X’. From the problems, the agenda that can lead into solving the problems are government agenda and the public agenda.

1. Government agenda


a) Frame amplification : Focus on spitting and urination as unhealthy and may affect the economy.


b) Frame extension : Decrease of pollution will happen if healthy lifestyles are practiced.


c) Frame bridging : If urination and spittinh can be decreased by the government, foreign companies will invest and therefore, increase budget for health and education.


2. Public agenda


a) Frame amplification : Focus on the improvement of children’s education and its benefits.

b) Frame extension : Extend the importance of education, where this can help improve the economy of the country.


c) Frame bridging : By providing proper education for children, this can decrease crime  activities, and eventually will improve the economy,.

References :

Littlejohn, S. W. (2002). Theories of Human Communication.(7th edition). New Mexico : Wadsworth

McCombs, Maxwell E, and  Donald, L. S. (1977).The Emergence of  American Political Issues. New York : West Publishing Company

Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory. New                             York: The McGraw-Hill Companies

Aziimah binti Othman (11B8111)

Week 5 : Media Ecology

               As quoted by Neil Postman (2009), media ecology looks into the matter of how media communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. (as cited in Media Ecology Association, 2009).

               According to McLuhan, media ecology is the study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies. (as cited by Griffin, 2009, p.313)



The Medium Is the Message

              Media ecologist Neil Postman once remarked that "A medium is a technology within which a culture grows; that is to say, it gives form to a culture's politics, social organization, and habitual ways of thinking. (as cited by Tom Valcanis, 2011, p.33-45)

              As stated by McLuhan, medium is the specific type of media, for example a book, newspaper, radio, television, telephone, film, website or email. In order to understand how media affects large structural changes in human outlook, McLuhan classify media as either hot or cool. 

              Hot media refers to a high-definition communication that demands little involvement from audience for examples radio, books and lectures. Whereas cool media describes media that demands active involvement from audience for examples, TV, seminars and cartoons.


Twitter as a cold medium

              In my opinion, Twitter is regarded as a cold medium as exemplified by McLuhan, "A movie is thus said by McLuhan to be ‘hot’, intensifying one single sense high definition, demanding a viewer's attention, and a comic book to be ‘cool’ and low definition, requiring much more conscious participation by the reader to extract value."

              Firstly, this is due to the critical mass of people already using Twitter. As is the case with most social media tools, the more people who actually use a particular service, the richer the possible range of experiences.  Twitter is free where the barrier to entry is very low. All you need is a mobile phone that can send and receive text message. Moreover, Twitter uses the lowest common denominator for all languages where it does not get any more basic than ones and zeros. Also, there are 6 billion people on Earth and 4 billion of them have twitter ready devices.

               Secondly, just as crucial reason for using Twitter, is due to the way it has become part of the social media ecology, weaving its way into other services.  Through advanced twitter search, it is easy to find and connect with people who may help raise your awareness. Twitter is the easiest way to connect with influenced people including politicians, celebrities, and captains of industry.


              Twitter also has a few diversities where one of it is that, when given a problem to solve, a diverse group of non-experts arrive at better solutions than a group of experts. Additionally, news, ideas, brand stories and rumors spread at the speed of light on twitter. People may think of twitter as a round the clock networking event where anyone with a device and a connection can virtually mingle with the likes of Bill Gates, Lady Gaga or Roger Ebert.

References :

Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory.New York : The McGraw-Hill.Companies

Postman, N. (2009). What is Media Ecology, Retrieved March 1, 2012, from Media Ecology Association:                                                                                                                                                          http://www.mediaecology.org/media_ecology/index.html

Valcanis, T. (2011). Media Ecology : Communication Structures and                               Global Village. An Iphone in Every Hand , 33-45.



Aziimah binti Othman (11B8111)

Week 4 : Semiotics

              Semiotics is the study of signs, their contents and the ways that they are expressed. As stated by Griffin (2009, p.323), the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems ; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else. A sign is basically defined as anything that has a meaning.


             According to John Fiske (1990, p.51), "Semiotics is the study of the different varieties of sign, of the different ways they have of conveying meaning and of the way they relate people who uses them". Codes are also important to interpret the meanings that a certain community can agree on. According to Chandler (2007), a code provides a framework within which signs make sense. He continues explaining that a code is a set of practices familiar to the medium operating within a broad cultural framework. (Chandler, 2007, p. 148)


             The terms signifier and signified are used with reference to a sign. A signifier is defined as the sensory impression that the sign gives us whereas the signified is the abstract concept that a sign evokes.

             There are many different varieties of sign and ways of relating to people and communicating meaning. John Fiske (1990, p.52) quoted that, "The conveyance of messages takes place through the development and use of codes, the form and existence that these take depends on the society and culture within which they operate". For example, the numbers "90210".

             For some people, they might think "90210" are just some random numbers. But as for me, when I saw "90210", I instantly thought about the hit TV series "90210" that I like to watch every Tuesday on Star World.

                Denotation is described as the definitional, literal, obvious or 'common sense' meaning of a sign. Whereas connotation on the other hand, is the motive or social meaning that a speaker assigns to a certain expression. For example, below is Paris Hilton's 'Can Can' perfume advertisement.

 
               Denotation about the above image is that a woman is standing on a stage, wearing a red, flowing feathery dress with properly groomed hair. There are also two heart shapes at the background of the stage and also a perfume at the below part of the picture.

               As for the connotation, most of the colours being used in the picture are red so this shows that the perfume she is advertising connotes passion, love and affection. Between her hairstyle and the material and the colour of the dress, she appears to be very famous, glamorous, sexy and she is definitely the center of attention.




References :

Chandler, D. (2007) Semiotics: The Basics. New York. Routledge.

Fiske, J. (1990). Introduction to Communication Studies. London :                               Routledge.


Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory.New York: The McGraw-Hill.Companies 





Aziimah binti Othman (11B8111)