“My newspaper” and the public interest: Civic implications of scheduling in the age of new media

Abstract

This article assumes the determining status that agenda-setting has in civic life, taking into account the ability of the media to influence the projection of events in public opinion, and shape social reality. The main objective is to analyze how one of the most significant theories in media studies is today challenged by social and political behaviors made possible by the new media. At the same time, and conversely, this text enunciates civic and political implications of agenda-setting practices now reconfigured. Specifically, the article aims to answer the following questions: how do new media challenge the assumptions of agenda- setting theory? What are the civic and democratic implications of the social and technological transformations?
In the first part of the article, it is described to what extent the new media test the classical understanding of agenda-setting. In the second part are formulated questions that, from the of civic life point of view, arise to the idea of agenda-setting. Finally, two requirements are pointed in terms of media functioning that protect and stimulate citizenship practices, inspired by the ideology of deliberative democracy.