Agenda-Setting in an Australian Newspaper and how Hegemony is at Work - Essay Example

THE RUNNING HEAD: AGENDA-SETTING IN AN AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER AND HOW HEGEMONY IS AT WORK. (Your Name) (Institution’s Name) Agenda setting is the formation of public alertness and concern of the major issues (as perceived by the people) by the news media. This however may not always reflect the reality of the happening. This is because the media sometimes filters and shapes the reality to focus on the core interest of the public. The media concentrates on a few issues that they emphasize so much instead on discussing all the issues in general. This creates confusion to the majority of the people as they tend to assume this issues are more significant than the others less discussed. One of the major aspects of agenda setting is time factor. The importance of varies issues is determined by the time factor. For instance political issues are more pronounced during election period and the role of the media is very important in the creation of the agenda setting. This is of great importance because it influences the how the public will respond towards the prevailing issues. This should not necessary be true according to Bernard Cohen (1963 “Most of the time, the press may not be successful in telling people what to think but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” The prime minister of the ruling Australian government John Howard has an ideology “choice of work”. This ideology have worked for the ruling government as it have tried to eradicate the unemployment that was increased from 4% to 10% by the labor government during its 11 years reign. However the creation of the employment opportunities was accompanied by low living standards that were caused due to the poor payment and high rates of taxation. This is in contrary to the people’s expectations as they had hoped to benefit from their employment opportunities and raise their living standards. The labor party is very critical of the John Howard ideology of ‘choice of work’ he has promised the Australian people better terms of work when the labor party comes to power after the 2007 general elections. They refer to John Harward ideology, as walking liberal, low wages, low skill roads. This is because the ruling government has not constructed good infrastructure as reported by Sydney Morning Herald 2007.The few constructed roads are of poor quality and often needs to be repaired. The labor party has promised to construct a fiber optic broad band to facilitate communication for the Australian person that is, estimated to cost about 4.7 billion dollars. According to www.theaustralian.news.com , the ruling government has failed to provide enough security to the Australians as they had promised when they were coming to power. This is because lately there has been several reported insecurity cases in Australia ranging from theft to terrorism. The labor party has promised to establish better security strategies that will ensure national security to the Australians. A security system that will guarantee a peaceful nation free of terrorism. The party has also promised tax reforms that will be fair to the majority of the Australians who are of low and middle class. As reported by The Australian government the ruling government has failed to provide adequate medical faculties to the Australians. The available ones are not well equipped in terms of equipment and trained personnel. The labor party is accusing the ruling government of not offering standard education to the Australians. They are citing the existing schools; colleges and universities that they say are under equipped. They say that most schools do not have enough trained staff and well-equipped laboratories for the students taking science subjects. They emphasize that the youths are the future leaders and should be well empowered with the best knowledge which cannot be realized under the current circumstance. The labor party is promising the Australians better education. They are claming to build more schools, equip the existing ones with enough facilities and adequate trained teaching staff. www.newslink.org As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald 2007 the labor party is criticizing the environmental policies laid down by the ruling government. To them, there has been a lot of degradation of the Australian environment of late. This has caused green house effect that has affected the lives of the Australians adversely. The government is said to have allowed uncontrolled industrialization that has greatly polluted the environment. The labor party has promised to amend these policies to ensure that the environment is conserved. It is also suggesting on campaign to plant more trees to try and sustain the river catchments areas which are currently endangered by the high rate of environmental degradation. The labor party says that this will help to safe guard the vast Australian land from damage and help to sustain the good Australian climatic condition that have prevailed for long before this government took over. They say that the conservation of the environment will also guarantee the future Australian generation enjoy good environmental conditions. Generally, the media plays a vital role in any nation. For instance, it is the work of the media to criticize bad leadership. The media has the capability of looking into leaders past, pinpoint the mistakes done and request explanation from the leaders, and then bring them to the public notice. This is a good way of shaping leaders who go astray by bringing them on the right. Legal measures are taken upon those leaders who are found guilty of injustice; such as corruption. This helps the public the public to eliminate bad leaders by voting them out during elections. It is a better way of maintaining good leadership. www.newslink.org The media also plays a major role on enlightening and creating awareness to the public on crucial issues. It helps the public in making the right choices. From the vast information produced by the media the public gets educated in various issues ranging from economic issues, agricultures issues, political issues, environmental issues among others. From this people are then able to gain any information they may require and stand in a better position to make sound decisions. For instance in The Australian newspaper 2007,Kim Beazley of the labor party outlines the strategies of the labor party. He also talks about how the Australian tax system operates. From this people can understand better on several issues about taxation. (The Australian Time) The media editors also serve a great role. They are the people who filter and shape the most important information that reaches the public. They may add or remove details in order to information in the best way they would like the public to perceive information. They generally ensure that large information is conveyed within the minimum amount of words without changing the meaning. The editors organize information and media materials in such a way that the major issues attract the most attention. This could be the manner they design, present or even position information. For example now that the elections in Australian are just around the corner the main heading on the front pages of most of the Australian newspapers is mainly political. Usually the information they convey they are on what the aspiring leaders are pledging to do for the benefit of the public and the nation in general. In most television and radio news cast in Australia during this election period the main agendas are also politically motivated. Mostly it is on how the opposition parties are criticizing where the governing party (the liberal party) has gone astray and also campaigning for the election parties. This can be clearly seen in Australian newspaper 2007. Another work of the editors is to close check, grammatical and pronunciation mistakes that may have occurred in any media materials. Most Australian media materials are well checked for such mistakes. Media owners help in creation of employments. They employ many people poor in media houses. The employees return the people perform all the media work including gathering of information from various sources, video shooting, tape recording, editing, printing, news reading among other jobs. However, journalists do not depend on the salaries they get from their employers to earn their living. Sometimes they are bribed but certain leaders to cover them in return of money. This way they become biased by siding on a certain political side. The public in endues being cheated. This is mostly common during ele3ction periods; as most politicians are aspiring to lead. The Australian newspaper is not exceptional especially at this period that the election is approaching. According to The Australian Time, Media owners also play a very important role of national development. It is from the media houses that they establish that a nation earns revenues and taxes. It is also from the same media house they manage and government is able to advertise for its country’s national resources. Locally and internationally; the tourist in return bring into their country foreign exchange. From this money countries are able to develop and grow. The Australian newspaper such as the Sidney morning herald and the Australian newspapers have largely contributed to this development. References Shanahan, D. and Franklin, M. (2007): "Vote well before Christmas: Howard " The Australian, September 5, 2007/ Accessed September 20. The Australian Time (dated 15th June 2007) The Australian (dated 2nd August 2007) www.theaustralian.news.com (Retrieved 20th September 2007) www.newslink.org (Retrieved 20th September 2007) The Sydney Morning Herald (retrieved 20 sep 2007.) Read More