Discuss Policy Cycle, Agenda Setting, and News Media
The only security of all is in a free press.
–Thomas Jefferson
The policy cycle is a process that explains how public policy is created, implemented, and evaluated. Although there are many different variations of the policy cycle, we shall use a simplified, four step public policy cycle:
Step 1: Agenda Setting
How public policy concerns are understood and how various stakeholders highlight the public policy concern.
Step 2: Policy Formation
The crafting of public policy solutions. Public policy solutions are mostly addressed through legislation or regulation.
Step 3: Policy Implementation
How public policy is applied via federal, state, and/or local endeavors.
Step 4: Policy Evaluation
How public policy is assessed: success or failure.
Source: (Kraft, 2018)
Agenda setting is the first step of the policy cycle.
The news media can affect public policy via agenda setting. Agenda setting is how individual news media decides what news they will showcase and how important the news story is by providing greater or lesser attention to the news story (OConnor, Sabato, 2017).
In addition, the news media can affect public policy via framing. Framing is how individual news media covers the news story and how such coverage can steer public policy one way or another (OConnor, Sabato, 2017).
News Medias coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a prime example of how agenda setting and framing affected environmental public policy. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank, resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010 (EPA, 2017)
The following links showcase media coverage and analysis of the BP Deepwater Horizon coverage.
ABC World News Nows broadcast of the initial disaster:
https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/april-22-2010-bp-oil-rig-explosion-13376980
The Guardian Newspapers coverage of the initial disaster:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/31/bp-oil-spill-death-impact
The Washington Posts article a week after the initial disaster:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042604308.html
Fox Newss article a week after the initial disaster:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/everything-will-be-examined-in-gulf-oil-spill-officials-say
The Pew Research Centers article, Oil Spill Coverage Engulfs the Media that analyses how the news media covered the disaster:
https://www.journalism.org/2010/06/01/pej-news-coverage-index-may-2430-2010/
Directions:
Select a specific example of public policy from one of the following fields:
o Healthcare policy
An example of healthcare policy is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Write a letter to the editor of a major news media company about a specific article, video, or political cartoon. The Union of Concerned Scientists has a great resource that explains how one writes a letter to the editor. In this letter please include the following:
o Analyze how the news media sets the agenda and frames the news story.
o Articulate, in detail, how this news story helps or hinders your chosen public policy.
o Speculate how voter engagement could affect this public policy.
Although you may pick your news story from any of the major news media, here are some reputable news sources that may prove useful:
ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/
Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/
CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com
Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com
Denver Post: https://www.denverpost.com/
LA Times: https://www.latimes.com
Houston Chronicle: https://www.chron.com/
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/
The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com
Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/
Tampa Bay Times: https://www.tampabay.com/
USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/
The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/
Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com
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