Useful for increasing understanding to include an explanation of What is to be primed --- As the term is used several times in this reading and not everyone of us is already familiar with the concept, it would have being useful to include a precise explanation of what TO BE PRIMED means in order to avoid ambiguity taken place in the up take of some of us who ignore its meaning.

In my case I am only familiar with PRIMING as AN EFFECT OF THE NEWS on the audience, but -after checking its general common meaning in Internet and the sentences where the term is used in module 7 reading material and the CONTEXT that surrounds his use by Biljana- I am primed to believe the concept is used here in the reading under its more broad sense (which I lacked in my mind before begining the reading).

PRIMING is one of the few powerful effects that political scientists have been able to provide proof under rigorous experimental conditions: “capacity of the media to isolate particular issues, events or themes in the news (by giving them intense news coverage) as CRITERIA (citizens use) TO EVALUATE politicians… on job performance and assessment of political leaders’ (and candidates for office) personal traits” (Ansolabere, Stephen, Roy Behr & Shanto Iyengar, THE MEDIA GAME. American Politics in the Television Age, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, 1993. pp.148-150 & 176-177)..

Source author: Eric Suzán Reed esuzan@sre.gob.mx