1. BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY 1 INTRODUCTION
1.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.8.1 Agenda setting theory
The agenda setting role of the news media is observed in their influence on the salience of a particular issue. The influence is based on whether any significant numbers of people really regard the subject in question is worthwhile to hold an
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opinion about. While many other topical issues compete for public attention, only a few succeed in doing so. The news media exert significant influence on our perceptions of what the most important issues of the day are. In other words, the news media can set the agenda for public thought and discussion on topical issues such as illicit drugs use. The agenda of the news media becomes, to a considerate degree, the agenda of the public. In other words, the news media set the public agenda and this makes newspapers an interesting area to study since their editorial content is usually predetermined by editors (McCombs, 2013). The agenda can be set according to the following aspects:
• Influencing the pictures in readers’ heads
The agenda-setting influence of the news media is not limited to the initial step of focusing public attention on the use of illicit drugs. The media also influence the next step in the communication process, an understanding and perspective on the topic in the news, specifically news reports of the consumption of nyaope. The thought of the agenda in abstract terms makes the potential for a broader view of media influence on public opinion to become very clear (McQuail, 2013).
Subsequently, for each topical issue there is an agenda of attributes because when the media practitioners and the public think and talk about a particular issue, some attributes are emphasised, others are given less attention, and many receive no attention at all. This agenda of attributes is another aspect of the agenda setting role of the news media. To borrow Walter Lippmann’s phrase, “the pictures in heads,” the agenda of issues or other objects presented by the news media influence what the pictures in our heads are about. The agenda of attributes presented for each of these issues, public figures, or other objects literally influences the pictures themselves that we hold in mind (McQuail, 2013). For instance, the more coverage of news reports on nyaope, the more it sets the agenda and influence the perception of readers about the drug.
• Influencing the public agenda
Although the influence of the media agenda can be substantial, it alone does not determine the public agenda. Information and cues about the consumption of drugs and attributes of salience provided by the news media are far from the only
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determinants of the public agenda. This substantial influence of the news media has no way overturned or nullified the basic assumption of drug use and how the people at large have sufficient wisdom to determine the causes of abuse, the state of addicts, and their local communities. In particular, readers are quite able to determine the basic relevance to themselves and to the larger public arena of the topics and attributes advanced by the news media (McCombs, 2004).
It is also worth noting that the media set the agenda only when citizens perceive their news stories as relevant. The presence or absence of agenda setting effects by the news media can be explained by a basic psychological trait, and a need for orientation. Innate within each one of the public is the need to understand the environment around them. Whenever the public find itself in a new situation, there is an uncomfortable psychological feeling, until they explore and mentally grasp at least the outlines of that setting (ibid).
• Consequences of agenda setting
According to McCombs (2013), attitudes and behaviour are usually governed by cognitions, what a person knows, thinks, and believes. Hence, the agenda setting function of the mass media implies a potentially massive influence on which full dimensions and consequences have yet to be investigated and appreciated. Initially, the salience of news reports of illicit drugs in the mass media is linked to the formation of opinions by the audience. With the increasing salience of the consumption of nyaope in the news, for example, more people move away from a neutral position and form their opinion about the illicit drug (ibid).
In addition, a study on the use of heroin and cocaine in the United States of America found exceedingly strong correlations between the pattern of media emphasis, which varied widely across these illicit drugs, and the number of citizens who expressed ambivalent opinions about the drugs by checking the mid-point of various rating scales. The comparison between the drugs was significant as it produced high prominence of news stories reported which resulted in mixed opinions by readers (McCombs, 2013).
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• Shaping public opinion
The agenda setting function of the media not only defines salient issues, but also captures the attention of the public and shapes public opinion. McQuail (2010:513) argues that there is a correlation between how much emphasis the media place on a problem, and how significant the audience perceive that issue. For example, the scholar states that research has shown that the media can more greatly influence public concern about social control issues such as crime and drug use than changes in the actual reported incidence of the problem. The nature of media production means that a limited number of issues can remain newsworthy at a particular time, and the choice of what is included (or excluded) sets the agenda and defines public interest and opinion (ibid). Therefore, the agenda setting process builds consensus about what issues are most important within the community (McCombs, 2004:128).
Thus, the theory explains and supports the techniques in which tabloids’ agenda setting processes influence the manner of coverage of nyaope in the South African tabloids.
In relation to this study, the above argument refers to how concentrated media attention to illicit drugs particularly a lack of focus on the consumption of nyaope could lead to the trivialisation of the dire effects of drugs. This theory explains that the public is only aware of the news, which the media deal with and adopt the order of priority assigned to different issues covered. For instance, if the media focus their attention on topical issues such as drug trafficking and continuously play down the horrendous consequences of illicit drugs specifically the use of nyaope, the public may regard the consumption of such drugs as insignificant.