Journaling The Explanatory Power of Theory

After reading Theories and Effects of Mass Comunication book by Baran you should now have a better understanding of various theories of communication. As the text explains, we currently believe that the media do affect us, but not in the all-powerful ways once taught by the magic bullet theories. Instead we believe the media impact us powerfully in limited areas of life, such as that explained by agenda setting theory.

First, what are the three most important problems facing America today?

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2.

3.

Now that you’ve listed the most important problems, think about how you came to believe that those are the most important problems. Are they from personal experience, do the media talk about those problems, or is it a combination of the two?

Write a 1 page (1€³ margins, 12 point Times New Roman font) essay explaining your answer to these two questions. Talk about how much knowledge you could even have about each issue without the media, and therefore the amount of dependency you place on the media for that specific topic.