Strengths and Weaknesses of the Agenda SettingTheory

            The Agenda Setting Theory discusses how the mass media gives prominence to issues in our society. That is; how  the media manufactures information (by gathering, processing, andpackaging it), and presenting it to the mass audience in a way that they will such iformation as more important than others. Under this theory, the mass audience have a choice in picking between many salient stories provided by the media. It was propounded by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. One of the strengths of this theory is that, the media helps the audience to know what is going on at places which, the audience do not know. It is also fair to know that, the media have personnels (journalists), who are trained in all fields of work and life.This anable them to be able to access and assess information well (from all walks of life), and to present accurate accounts of issues, regardless of where they are coming from. Therefore, issues  that are sailient to the media, are mostly of higher importance when looked at from actualities.
            Under this thoery, there are the media's agenda, the public agenda, and the government agenda. This is where the weakness of the theory lies. The media may not publish a public agenda because it is not salient to them. Thus the mass audience may have an important issue at hand but the media will not publish it because it may lack the values of personality and prominence (where no popular figure is involved). At this point, the media continues to propagates their agenda and that of the government (probably because it sells and has important personalities. The mass audience, having been exposed to the media's agenda, will turn to disciss it and thier own agenda soon fades out. The media, by the use of their tools such as priming and framing, make unpopular, the public agenda. Thus the media have that power to choose for the audience, what they should think and discuss about.

Limitations of the Uses and Gratification Theory

            The uses and gratification is a theory that discusses how the mass audience of the mass media use media contents and what they use them for.It shows that the media does not use its audience, as always perceived.This theory in effect, says that, people have various needs and they decide how to satisfy these needs , using the media.With this theory, the mass audience use the media to define  their personal identity, build relationships and to escape from personal worries. It debunks the fact that the audience are passive participants in the mass communication process.
             On the contrary to using the media to define or affirm their personal identity, the mass audience have other sources like friends, family members, church members, who they more cordially relate to. These people offers the individual a sense of personal identity. Also, our cultural background bestows on us a sense of identity, before we come into contact with the mass media. More realistic, is the fact that, the relationships we form with media icons are only mental relationships. The kind of relationships we have are with the people around us.
             There is also the fact that, the mass audience do not always use the media. Sometimes, the media uses the audience by forcing media content on the m through advertising and they respond to it.

FUNCTIONS OF THE MEDIA.

Functions of the Media
Social Functions of the Media
1. Education of the public: The media educates the public on issues of all aspects of life.
2. Entertainment of the public: The media in Ghana, shows movies, plays music and writes stories to entertain the public.
3. The media also, feeds the public with information from government and other places,that is  of public interest.
Economic Functions of the Media.
1. The media offers employment to people. Some of such employees include news casters, cameramen, news editors, technicians.
2. Also, the media, through tax paying, gives revenue to the government.
Political Functions of the Media
1. The media serves as a watchdog of both government and the governed in the society.

Two Step Flow Theory

   This theory talks about three entities who are involved in the mass communication process; of which two, form the audience of the other one. They  include the mass media itself, opinion leaders, and opinion followers (which form the mass audience). The first category of the mass audience is called the opinion leaders. These consist of people who frequently and directly get information from the mass media. They are people who know what happens all the time in the society: who listen to the radio or read the newspapers, or watch the TV all the time, (or even do all three concurrently). They might not necessarily, be the affluent in the society. They mediate  the media and the society. The  second category  is the opinion followers. They are people who do not direct flow of information from the media but rather get their information through the opinion leaders. They may also not be the low class of people in the society, (who may not have radio sets, TV sets or newspapers). they depend on the opinion leaders for information in their discussions on daily happenings. 

             This theory, though seems to talk about the independence of the mass audience on the media, refuses to recognize the fact that, the opinion leaders (on whom the opinion followers are very dependent), are dependent on the mass media. nonetheless, the mass media is not so powerful in the realms of this theory, as perceived in the Hypodermic Needle Theory. In effect, the mass audience is still dependent on the mass media, though the power of the media has reduced.

             Moreover, this theory highlights the point that, media influence on its audience is reduced. It is indeed reduced. Meanwhile, there is more influence from the opinion leaders on the interpretation of media content.this is due to the fact that, the opinion leaders are well known and respected by the opinion followers and are most likely to interpret media content based on their own personal feelings before transferring the information to the opinion seekers. So, by the time the media content get to the opinion followers, the media content may have lost its value.

This theory shows that, there are three entites involved in the transmission of the content of mass media and they include the mass media itself,

Hypodermic Needle Theory

          This theory is about the absolute power of the media to affect the lives of its audience. The Hypodermic Needle Theory of mass communication, sees the mass audience as incapable of assessing the kind or content of information given to them by the mass media.the theory also assumes that, the mass audience do not have any other source of information with which to check the information from the mass media. With this theory (in my view), the media is always subjective in its reportage, since it is assumed that the mass media is incapable of assessing the content of the mass media. Thus media content is forced on the mass audience who are believed to decode the message uniformly.
          A weakness of this theory is that, it refuses to recognize any power of the mass audience to receive and interpret the information encoded by the mass media.it should be well recognized that, the mass audience do have different cultural backgrounds and are influenced by other environmental factors such as their family, institutions, occupation, etc and all these inform them as to how to understand issues.
          Also, in today's world (which is full of technologies), the theory is inapplicable.This means that, the theory is outdated, because the mass audience now have access to other  sources of information with which they can clarify issues.Thus, the mass audience is now independent on the mass media. the other sources of information include books, the Internet, friends, associations and other people they associate with. i mean that, there is an interconnectivity of different cultures.

AN INTERVIEW ON HOW MEDIA CONTENTS AFFECT THE LIVES OF ITS AUDIENCE

Speaking to a friend, Berny Mark is the best Tv programme he likes to watch most. According to him, it is a 30 minute program, which starts from 7:30pm to 8:00pm,Mondays -Fridays.
"I watch it because, it makes me laugh. it helps me reduce stress", my friend told me, this is the reason behind his attitude towards the program. This program runs simultaneously with prime time news on many Tv stations. Because of this, he watches the program 3 times weekly.
"Berny Mark has influencing me so much," he said. "Now, I turn to make fun of almost everything and everybody." He thinks he is influencing his friends also by encouraging them to crack jokes when they are with him. Above all, he hopes to be the best clown on GIJ campus (probably because of Berny Mark).