eveloped by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972, agenda-setting theory
describes the ability of the news media to influence how much importance we
attach to an issue. The more coverage a topic receives, the more salient it becomes.
In this way, the priorities of the media strongly influence the priorities of the
public.
Today’s media landscape is a lot more developed than it was 50-plus years
ago—traditional media giants are now competing with citizen journalists,
bloggers, and Facebook and Twitter users. With so many modes of production,
how can we be sure that we’re getting the content that best serves us?
January marks the release of ILA’s What’s Hot in Literacy report (see
page 22 for full details). Based on responses from more than 2,000 education
professionals, nonprofit leaders, and government representatives in 91 countries
How ILA’s Literacy Research Panel is redirecting
conversations around literacy
MINDING THE GAPS
By Alina O’Donnell
Alina O’Donnell
(aodonnell@reading.org)
is the communications
strategist at ILA and the
editor of ILA’s blog, Literacy
Daily.
LITERACY
LEADERSHIP
8
literacyworldwide.org | January/February 2018 | LITERACY TODAY