Take a look above at the four images. The two on the left are from CNN with headlines that attack Trump and negatively criticize his briefing style. The two on the right are from FOX with headlines about how Trump wants to make sure that the media releases "honest" facts. All four are screenshots from the same White House press briefing during the COVID-19 pandemic but each news outlet tells a different story of what's going on. Because CNN has Democratic beliefs and values, they oppose a lot of what President Trump says and make their audience believe that Trump is not a good president at all. But FOX has Republic beliefs and values, so they often agree with a lot of what Trump says and show their audience the success of his presidency. Both CNN and FOX are the two major political news channels in the US and both compete for viewers. Because the news from the White House may not always be in their favor, they ignore some information and dramatize other key pieces to influence viewers. This is called Agenda Setting.
There is not much good about Agenda Setting as it only benefits the broadcasters. CNN and FOX care more about money, so they edit the reality to create controversy and turn your attention to them. The negatives with this is that the people aren't always getting all the correct information and their philosophies become filled with false facts. This can be an issue when it comes down to voting as voters are more influenced by the media and less by the candidates. There are many people in our country who are well informed and have strong and honest reasons about their political views, but there also many others who choose not to do the research and only pay attention to what's right in front of them. Many just read a headline without reading the entire article because they have a limited attention span, hence why social media has become a bloodbath for politics. I can barely even check Facebook without seeing someone share something politically biased.
For me, I have grown up in a Conservative household and my beliefs and values have been based off the biggest influencers in my life: my parents. However, we live in an area that is mainly Democratic, so we do our best to not bring up politics. I go on Facebook and I always see all these posts from local "friends" that rant on about how stupid Republicans are and that the whole country is falling apart because of Trump. Now, as a Republican, my family and I don't always stand with everything Trump has to say, but the media twists words and shifts attention to make my family and I look like clowns because that gets the media more followers. That being said, media outlets that are Conservative and pro-Trump do the same thing to Democrats and Liberals, which is also not right. The media doesn't use Agenda Setting because they whole-heartedly believe they should skew words. They do it because people listen to controversy and drama.
So if you want to avoid Agenda Setting and media outlets that falsify reality, do the research and search for unbiased information. Here are some websites that provide first-hand content and honest facts:
Also, here is the website for all the White House press briefings without the misleading headlines:
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