WEEK 11

Today’s lecture on ‘Agenda setting’ was perhaps my favourite so far for the whole semester. Picking up where we left off last week with ‘News Values’, ‘Agenda setting’ is the theory (not fact) that media corporations take certain positions on issues in order to further their own political agendas; for example, Fox News in the US (a right wing slanted news channel) will selectively choose facts from the recent Romney-Obama debates to paint Romney in a positive light so he can win the election; in constrast NBC being more left wing and moderate will do the same thing for Obama. Redman made the point that agenda setting generally only works effectively when trying to say the fence sitters; people who have their minds made up on a certain issue will usually stick to that opinion. He also emphasised that images play an important role in shaping the minds of the public, such as unforgettable image of the plane penetrating the WTC during September 11 attacks.   At one point Redman took a trip back to the 1930s when Leni Reifenstahl and Adolf Hitler exploited the limits of propaganda to influence the masses.

Later on in the lecture Redman mentioned Lindsey Tanner’s argument that media was being dumbed down; he went on to say that he would take Tanner more seriously if he spoke candidly about the Rudd coup; I completely agreed with Redman that Tanner should spill all as this mysterious event had never properly been set straight in the eyes of the Australian public. What was more interesting was that Redman said that he knew the real story because one of his former students was a intern with Rudd government during this chaotic time.  I was keen to hear more tidbits but they didn’t come. Redman wrapped up by talking about evolution of opinion on climate change and how Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was a complete game changer in influencing the opinions of Australian politicians; I enjoyed the subtle digs at climate change skeptic/right wing hack Andrew Bolt. An amazing lecture today, looking forward to next week’s!