Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 20

Percentage of population using a medium

50
45
40

Evolving Roles of
Traditional and Social
Media as Agenda
Setters

Just as the rise of unmanned
drones has caused a need for the
military to alter battlefield strat30
egies, so too has the emergence of
25
social media resulted in a need for
the military to change communica20
tion strategies that previously relied
15
on traditional media. For example,
Army leaders now use tweets as
10
well as the New York Times as part
5
of their public communications
planning (or they should).
0
Newspaper
Television
Mobile
Online
Twitter
Social Media
To help Army leaders develop
Types of media
effective communication strategies
in a changing media environment,
Age
65+
50-64
40-49
30-39
25-29
18-24
Groups
this article briefly discusses the
types of media audiences use, the
ways audiences combine (meld)
Figure 1. Media Use by Age
them, and the ways those meAgenda Setting with Regard to
dia influence audiences to select
Specific News Topic Levels
issues they regard as being important. Additionally, it
Scholars studying agenda setting have established that
concludes with five recommendations to help Army
the media, in addition to focusing community interest
leaders communicate with and influence their organion broad issues in news coverage, also effectively highzations and the public.
light specific aspects of those issues.4 For example, if there
was a front-page news story about Iran that focused
Challenges to Effective
on an Iranian effort to build a nuclear weapon and also
Communication Strategies
mentioned the effects of trade restrictions on Iran, then
Because it takes many years to climb the leadership
audiences probably would say, when asked, that Iran was
ladder, senior leaders of any organization are usually
an important topic in the news. If pressed why, they likely
older, and often are somewhat established in their leadwould go on to cite the Iranian nuclear program and the
ership styles—to include the ways they communicate
effects of trade restrictions, since both were mentioned
with subordinate members of their organizations and
prominently in the news story. This illustrates what some
external audiences they deem essential. One common
scholars call the exchange with audiences of general or
characteristic is that many such senior leaders prefer
main topics as agenda setting level 1. The exchange with
one-way traditional media (such as newspapers or
audiences of story details is an example of agenda setting
magazines) together with other vertical (top-down)
level 2. (Research into these areas has also produced some
communication strategies, thinking they can set instievidence suggesting that the media do influence how auditutional agendas for their subordinates once and for all.
ences think about the subtopics and subissues they present.)
Such traditional communications mainly go in one
Consequently, a list of the major issues covered by
direction: from source to audience, from leader to
newspapers, television, and other major media—now
subordinates, from one to many. These traditional meincluding social media—likely would be highly cordia, like daily newspapers and television news, strive
related with issues listed by their audiences.
to reach a large, diverse audience but attempt to do so
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November-December 2015  MILITARY REVIEW