Essay 9

DATA for 2009_4 (below)
Viewer’s Ages and Frequency of Viewing of Network Nightly News: 1974 and 2002 Combined
1974 frequently (%) rarely (%)
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18-29 45 13
30-44 50 12
45-64 68 8
65+ 71 5

2002 frequently (%) rarely (%)
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18-29 19 22
30-44 22 17
45-64 40 11
65+ 53 8

The policy agenda is composed of all issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actually involved in politics at any given point in time. It is organized in such a way that the most important issues are first and so on.
The national news engages in setting this agenda by raising awareness of important issues. By broadcasting and providing information, it draws the attention of not only the public, but the government and policy makers as well, which can then lead to organization and agenda setting- prioritizing the issues to be dealt with.
Though Congress can gain media attention, the President is the most useful person for this job. He is one person, while Congress is composed of multiple people. The president speaks with a single voice, while Congress has many voices, and he represents the nation entire nation rather than a district or state. The president is more powerful than any single member of Congress and, therefore, is most closely listened to by the public.
As the table provided shows, young people view less TV news than older people and vice versa. People in all age categories viewed less TV news in 2002 than they did in 1974. This being said, the President will need to rely on alternate forms of media to gain the attention of the public rather than the nightly news, as he is only reaching a select portion of the population.