As a journalist-in-training at Ithaca College you get pounded with the ideal of objectivity, which is, in fact, the complete opposite of agenda setting. But, after three and a half years or so, you face the fact that agenda setting and quietly-biased news is inevitable.
As much as I may not like it, no human being can be truly objective and it seems as though few journalists actually even try. So I’ve come to accept the fact that agenda setting exists.
What’s important now, is for media outlets to not deny their agendas. For Fox News to pretend to be objective and agenda free makes as much sense as The Village Voice claiming the same thing. Ideally, news outlets should aim for objectivity, which would in-and-of-itself do away with agenda setting practices.
Beyond the media, it is up to citizens not to rely entirely on one outlet for their information. It may take extra time and effort, but the only way to avoid being influenced by inevitable news agenda setting is to put an effort into forming your own opinions.
Recap: I don’t like news agenda setting but understand it is more of less inevitable. The media should work harder to not portray an agenda. Citizens should take it upon themselves to learn what’s happening from different sources in order to form the own opinions and thus avoid the negative effects of agendas.
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