Chapter 6 of our books discusses some very often used media techniques. It discusses the concepts of agenda setting, priming, and farming. Agenda setting is the idea that the press tells the readers which topics or issues are important. Denton and Kuypers say “agenda setting is the power of the media to focus their light on issues that normally would go unnoticed”. Denton and Kuypers also propose the idea of Framing, which is that the media present their ideas in the light that they want the viewers to see it, hence framing.
The politics of feminism is a strong example of agenda setting. The author Jessica Ravitz goes out of her way to shine light on a meeting between two female congresswomen. It is reasonable to assume that countless meetings occur between different members of congress on a regular basis. So the question arises, why is this meeting so special that it deserves an article on cnn.com? Could it be because these two women have very different opinions; Carolyn Maloney is a left wing democrat and Cynthia Lummis is a conservative republican.
The author then goes on to list some of Rep. Maloney’s accomplishments over her 22 years in congress. One would have to admit that all of the accomplishments listed are pro women centered. Almost to give the reader the idea that in all of her 22 years in office, pro-female legislation is all that Rep. Maloney has done. I would have to think that in her many years of service she has been a part of many pieces of legislation, gender neutral. Framing perhaps?