Mass Medias influence on the public

How does mass media shape the public's agenda of issues?
Mass Media shapes the public’s agenda of issues dramatically because they chose what is or is not important by what they show us; whether it is on the radio, the news, or in newspapers. For example, the media portrays the Tiger Woods scandal to be more important that more important things such as people in our country suffering and what we could do to help them.
They also tend to focus more on negative issues than positive. Such as, when the president of the United States does something wonderful we barely hear about it as if it’s nothing. On the contrary, when he messes something up its all we hear about. All in all, mass media has an enormous influence on what the public thinks of what issues are important and unimportant.