McCombs And The Construction, Development And Application Of Agenda Setting Theory

As the most important researchers of agenda setting theory, Maxwell E.McCombs has researched in this area for about45years and is still on the way ofexploration. This paper studies the process of inspection, construction, re-inspectionand its development and changes in the social application of agenda setting theorywhich were based on McCombs’ contribution. The author tries to give acomprehensive evaluation and reflection of this theory and its social applications,hoping this study will do some help for the researchment of agenda setting theory inChina.There are seven parts in this paper. The first one is introduction, and this chapterelaborates the meaning and purpose of this study. And also focuses on the researchstatus both in China and abroad, in order to pave the way for the subsequent research.The second chapter describes McCombs behind the theory, including his educationalbackgrounds, work experiences and family life, trying to render a three-dimensionalMcCombs. So that we can have a comprehensive understanding of McCombs’academic career based on understanding his life and personality. There are no suchintroductions both in China and abroad, however, I was so lucky to contact withMcCombs himself, and this chapter was able to complete with his help. In the thirdchapter, the author briefly describes the main academic achievements of McCombs,and listed his all monographs, then focuses on the other researches addition to theagenda setting theory, which are relatively rare in China.The author explores the process of inspection, construction, re-inspection ofagenda setting theory from the fourth to sixth chapter. The fourth chapter explores theideological origins, to the inspection by quantitative analysis, and construction,re-inspection of agenda setting theory. The fifth chapter explores the socialapplications of agenda setting theory, which have beyond the public affairs and thegeneral public within the scope of this chapter. And the author introduces sevendifferent research results as examples from different scholars. Chapter six is the reflection of the agenda setting theory by McCombs and other scholars, which is backto the basic theoretical concepts. Chapter seven is the final chapter of this paper,which is the conclusion chapter. In addition to do the conclusion, the author gives abrief summary of the agenda setting theory debates and doubts.Thus, the author considers that there are three main values of the agenda settingtheory of McCombs. Firstly, McCombs and his partners shifted the connotations ofcommunication from the attitude persuaded to cognitive effects in the basis of the firstgeneration of empiricism communication scholars, which broke the bottleneck oflimited effects and create a situation for the dissemination of research. Secondly, theagenda setting theory of McCombs experienced the process of inspection,construction, re-inspection, and the theory itself ultimately formed an area of researchand platform with great openness, which can be used to integrate and spreaddisciplines in different areas both in communication and others. At last, the agendasetting theory confirmed the causal relationship between the media agenda and thepublic agenda, and provided a series of attribute agenda setting strategy. The agendasetting theory can have a wide range of social applications objectively, so the positivefunctions of the modern media can play to the limit in the current social context.