In this video, we're going to talk theory. Now, before you fast forward, let me tell you, theory informs practice. If you understand a little bit of mass media theory, you will understand how to practice public relations, but also how to design messages and connect with your stakeholders. Theory is our roadmap to industry practice. Theory can help us do better public relations. When we work with media, we have to think like a journalist. Journalists are quick to dismiss stories that seem too PR. What does that mean? Too salesy. Remember, public relations is about storytelling, not selling. We want to connect with a journalist and to his or her readers or viewers or listeners through the story. Thinking like a journalist helps public relations practitioners provide journalists with the information they need, which is likely to lead to a news story, hopefully one that includes your client because the interesting information you provided pertains to your client. McCombs and Reynolds describe agenda setting as the ability of news media to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda. The agenda setting theory was formally developed by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in a study on the 1968 American presidential election. This social science theory suggests that media has a great influence on audiences and what they should think about. This is the cognitive process known as accessibility. Accessibility implies that the more frequently and prominently the news media cover an issue, the more instances of that issue become accessible in audiences memories. Some groups have a greater ease of access than others and are thus more likely to get their demands placed on the agenda than others. For instance, policymakers have been found to be more influential than the overall group of news sources because they often better understand journalists needs for reliable and predictable information, and their definition of newsworthiness. News sources can also provide definitions of issues and we'll talk more about that when we talk about framing. News often interprets reality and that interpretation dominates the public discourse and becomes how the public thinks about the issue. In the previous video, we talked about news making and we talked about the budget meeting and the selection of news. Well, this describes the gate-keeping theory. You see the editor in our budget meeting example is the gatekeeper, or the one who decides what gets into the news media. In essence, the gatekeeper decides what is news. Gate-keeping then is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination to the public. This theory first came about from social psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1943. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure. From a reporter deciding which sources are chosen to include in a story, to editors deciding which stories are printed or covered, and includes media outlet owners and even advertisers. Pamela Shoemaker and Tim Vos define gatekeeping as the process of calling and crafting countless bits of information into the limited number of messages that reach people every day. It is the center of the media's role in modern public life. This process determines not only which information is selected, but also what the content and nature of the message is, such as news will be. Framing is a social construction of a social phenomenon. The effects of framing can be seen in journalism. The frame surrounding the issue can change the reader's perception without having to alter the actual facts as the same information is used as a base. The effects of framing can be seen in journalism. The frame surrounding the issue can change the reader's perception without having to alter the actual facts as the same information is used as a base. This is done through the media's choice of certain words and images to cover a story. In the context of mass media communication, a frame defines the packaging of an element of rhetoric in such a way as to encourage certain interpretations and to discourage others. Framing often presents facts in such a way that implicates a problem that is in need of a solution. Though some might consider framing to be the same as agenda setting, other scholars argue that there is a distinction. Donald Weaver writes that framing selects certain aspects of an issue and makes them more prominent in order to elicit certain interpretations and evaluations of the issue. Whereas agenda setting introduces the issue topic to increase its salience and accessibility. What you are seeing on the screen are journalists news values. News values are criteria that influence the selection and presentation of events as published news. These values help explain what makes something newsworthy. News values are not universal, and can vary between different cultures. In Western practice, decisions on the selection and priority of news are made by editors on the basis of their experience and intuition. In a rapidly evolving market, achieving relevance, giving audiences the news they want and find interesting, is an increasingly important goal of media outlets seeking to maintain market share. This has made news organizations more open to audience input and feedback and force them to adopt and apply news values that attract and keep audiences. As PR practitioners, we draw upon these news values to determine if our news is newsworthy. We want to make our story newsworthy, so it gets past the gatekeeper and on the agenda. The two-step flow theory was first proposed by Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet in 1944. This theory proposes that interpersonal interaction has a stronger effect on shaping public opinion than mass media outlets. This theory validates the practice of public relations. Word of mouth is always stronger than paid advertising. The two-step flow stipulates that mass media content first reaches opinion leaders, people who are active media users and who collect, interpret, and diffuse the meaning of media messages to less active media consumers. This implies that most people receive information from opinion leaders through interpersonal communication rather than directly from mass media. Ultimately, the authors concluded that word of mouth transmission of information plays an important role in the communication process and that mass media have only a limited influence on most individuals. Of course, you know I like the two-step flow theory because it validates the practice of public relations. Word of mouth is the most persuasive form of communication, and PR, well, we specialize in creating that word of mouth.
