Survival of the Fittest: Social Media’s Influence on the Relationship between Traditional Media and the Public

Abstract

Despite the innovations and emergence of digital and social media technologies, the influential Agenda-setting theory developed by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972 has remained relatively unchanged. Many analysts still operate under the assumption that the media agenda has a greater influence on the public agenda. With the rise of social media, however, the possibility for reverse agenda-setting needs to be more seriously considered, especially in light of recent events surrounding the Trump University lawsuit, the 2016 presidential election, and the relative success of the #NoDAPL protests. Because of modern technological capabilities in social media, the basic premise of Agenda-setting theory is no longer accurate. This paper serves as a critique of existing theoretical models of Agenda-setting by analyzing recent developments in social media.