Thanks to Dr. Reber's class, the topic of Agenda Setting has been on my mind for the last week. It is just so interesting to me to think about who is deciding what the public conersation is about? Its like being given an essay topic for your life!
A couple of nights ago, while emersing myself in the pub culture of Oxford, (it really is a national pasttime...) I met a young man and we got to talking politics. I know, that's one of the things one should probably avoid discussing with strangers, especially in a foreign country. But it happened nonetheless. Well, we got to discussing the upcoming American presidential election. Although I'm pretty sure I kept up my end of the conversation and at least appeared to be knowledgeable, the Brit seemed to be more informed than I was. It was truly shocking to witness someone other than a US native discuss our political climate in terms of minute details, as this guy did. This got me thinking. How does agenda setting of the media agenda differ in the United Kingdom from that of the United States? From this conversation, it seemed to me that the politcial climate and media agenda of the United States affected the public agenda over here. Is our media agenda affected by our country's foreign relationships? Or is it just because England and the US are so strongly linked that affects it? Do foreign relations affect some country's media agenda more than others? I would be interested in any sort of feedback!
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It is rather embarrassing how ignorant we are of other countries' political situations. I overheard a conversation between two Brits at lunch yesterday. One said to the other, "I guess Obama's supporters aren't too keen on helping Hillary retire her campaign debt." The other replied, "Well, isn't it something like $20 million?" I'll bet very few people in an Athens restaurant could have cited the dollar amount.
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