We The People Summary

The authors of We the People believe that the heaviest influence on the public and policymaking through the media is done through agenda setting, framing, priming, and leaks.

Agenda setting is the media’s ability to select certain issues, legislation, policy, etc. and bring it into the public’s eye. The media selects these simply by determining the amount of importance it has on the nation’s public and whether or not they will gain ratings from the presentation of the issue. Once the media is convinced that it would be beneficial to present the issue to the public, it will do so through the lens it chooses. This is called the media’s selection bias and it means that it will present whichever side of the issue it wishes to push hardest into