The role of the news media was distinguished when Maxwell McCombs, scholarly author and speaker, presented at Linfield College on Sept. 24.

“[McCombs is] dubbed a living legend by his peers.” Lisa Weidman said, assistant professor of the mass communications department, introduced McCombs with all of his accomplishments.

McCombs has published 19 books and 169 scholarly publications, all of which that have been translated into 12 different languages that have inspired 500 agenda-setting studies across the world.

McCombs reestablished the agenda-setting theory which reflects the general public’s priorities as equal to those that the media represents the most.

Recently, McCombs has done Twitter studies, using his agenda-setting theory in political trends. Major Newspapers of the world can only fit certain priorities on the daily news reports.

“As a consumer, a mix of messages you encounter of the news coverage in a period of time has in the shift of the agenda,” McCombs said.

“The power of the public wields over media. It is the link to the world outside and the pictures in our head; it is the environment as we think it is.” McCombs said. “The public ratifies the media.”

Primary characteristics to of agenda-setting’s effects are frequency and its effects on awareness of the public, prominence of the public mind and attributes of the agenda reflect in the media.

McCombs discussed how redundancy is effective when it comes to the agenda-setting theory, making competitors easy to track online and archrival companies becoming more similar.

“Journalists are great plagiarists; they look to see what other journalists are doing and do the same thing,” McCombs said.

The transition between online and print media still have similar front pages, McCombs evaluated the young crowd as familiar with Internet and social media.

The baby boomers; however, were still into traditional media such as daily newspaper and television.

Through the overlapping of media outlets, “people can live in gated-information communities,” McCombs said.

Rosa Johnson/Copy editor

Assistant Mass Communications Professor Lisa

Weidman introduces Maxwell McCombs on Sept. 24.

Rosa Johnson/Copy editor

Maxwell McCombs, scholarly author and speaker, discusses the agenda-setting theory with assistant Professor of Mass Communication, Michael Huntsberger, on Sept. 24.

Rosa Johnson can be reached at [email protected].