News Effects II:
Gatekeeping, AgendaSetting, Priming, and the
Spiral of Silence
COM 226, Summer 2011
PPT #5
Includes chapters 11 & 12, part of chapter 24, of DeFleur textbook
News-Related Media Effects Theories
SOURCE
MESSAGE
FRAMING/UNINTENTIONAL NEWS DISTORTION
GATEKEEPING
AGENDA BUILDING
AGENDA SETTING
PRIMING
SPIRAL OF SILENCE
RECEIVER
Gatekeeping

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Gatekeeping is “the process of culling and
crafting countless bits of information into the
limited number of messages that reach people
each day. . .” the center of the mass media’s role
in society (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009)
May have originated in sociologist Kurt Lewin’s
investigation of social change and FOOD—who
are the food gatekeepers? And, food
gatekeeping includes not only the selection of
foods, but also their preparation.
An outcome of the news media’s surveillance
function

David Manning White’s adaptation of
the gatekeeping model:
Gatekeeping



Only a limited amount of time or space is
available (the “news hole”)
Each news organization has a news perspective
that guides its decisions on selection of stories
One criterion is the set of traditional or “classic”
news values (textbook):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Impact
Proximity
Timeliness
Prominence
Conflict
Currency
The Bizarre
Gatekeeping
Another criterion is the set of
organizational policies and beliefs
 VIDEO: The Crisis of the Cultural
Environment: Media & Democracy in
the 21st Century

• What trends in gatekeeping can you
identify?
Agenda Setting


“The mass media may not be successful
much of the time in telling people what
to think, but the media are stunningly
successful in telling their audience what
to think about.”
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT AGENDA?
That is, what have you been thinking
about/talking to others about over the
past day, and how much of a role do you
think the media had in this?
The Process of Agenda Setting
Agenda
Building
Agenda
Setting
Priming
Agenda Setting Evidence
Classic study: McCombs & Shaw
(1972) of undecided voters in Chapel
Hill, NC
 Found correlation of .96 between
major issues identified through
content analyses and issues people
said were important

Agenda Setting Evidence



Additional
example:
Coverage of drug
war and
perceptions of the
importance of
drugs as an issue.
Can you think of
any current, similar
examples of this
type of effect?
Agenda Setting

VIDEO: Rich Media, Poor Democracy
• What examples of both gatekeeping and
agenda-setting can you identify?
The Spiral of Silence

Developed by Elisabeth NoelleNeumann (1984; 1993), based in
part on previous research on
conformity:
• Asch (1956) found 76% of research
participants yielded to group pressure to agree
that lines were the same length when they
were not
• Milgram (1974) completed a famous series of
studies (see film Obedience) that showed
subjects willing to inflict pain on others when
urged to do so by a researcher
The Spiral of Silence

SOS Theory says two things
contribute to the public expression of
political opinion:
• 1 – Fear of isolation (hence, conformity)
• 2 – Mass media as creators of social reality
through coverage of public opinion. . . Mass
media serve as the representation of the
dominant views in society

Thus, SOS predicts that unpopular
public opinions will “spiral”
downward, out of sight
Spiral of Silence

Noelle-Neumann’s original research
in West Germany supported her
theory; subsequent research
elsewhere has had mixed results
Spiral of Silence
Jeffres et al. (1999; 2009) have found
evidence for multiple spirals of
silence. . . And even spirals of
confrontation
• OJ study: Whites interviewed by Blacks were
more willing to be quoted than were Blacks
interviewed by Whites
• 2000 Election study: Those showing great
interest in issues and those closest to
candidates were most likely to express
opinions to those with whom they disagree
(confrontation)
News-Related Media Effects Theories
SOURCE
MESSAGE
FRAMING/UNINTENTIONAL NEWS DISTORTION
GATEKEEPING
AGENDA BUILDING
AGENDA SETTING
PRIMING
SPIRAL OF SILENCE
RECEIVER