Scandals FTW

"Scandals over everything else"

The sad truth.... The media always did have the power to choose what to show and this is where the agenda setting theory comes from. People will value what the news and mass media presents to them of value. The mass media is such a powerful influence and the agenda setting theory tries to further enforce this idea of the mass media's ability to control the public subliminally.

I agree that mass media is indeed a powerful tool BUT is a tool wielded by the people being controlled themselves. It may sound weird that the ones being controlled are also the controllers themselves but it is true. Mass media may mean mass but not forced. Meaning that people choose what media to consume. People may choose watch abs-cbn, gma, some obscure station, or choose to avoid any television. People may choose to read of what newspaper, what magazine,  what tabloid, or choose to not read at all. My point is that media may be able to set the agenda for the public but in reality the public really chooses what agenda they want to. Admittedly people will only consume what they want to consume. If you are interested in serious stories and news of course you won't watch news that are just full novelty or read a feature magazine thereby making the media lose its power.

Even the public influences what the media will present for public consumption. This is where the sad truth comes in. People will choose sex scandals over national achievements. People will choose something more frivolous that concerns a famous celebrity over something of national or global importance (unless it is about a global celebrity). People will choose a car crash or massacre above "the good news". People are interested over sex,violence, and gossip. That is the sad truth. Corruptions in the government, national security, economic downfall, etcetera will always be buried upon by the most frivolous of news and updates because people already chose!