Donald Lewis Shaw (October 27, 1936 – October 19, 2021), one of the two founding fathers of empirical research on the

agenda-setting Agenda-setting theory suggests that the communications media, through their ability to identify and publicize issues, play a pivotal role in shaping the problems that attract attention from governments and international organizations, and direct p ...

function of the press, was a social scientist and a Kenan professor emeritus at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. He was born to Luther and Lowell Shaw on October 27, 1936, in

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. Shaw, a retired U.S. Army officer, held a Ph.D. in journalism from

the University of Wisconsin ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

and an M.A. and B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shaw worked for nearly three years as a daily newspaper reporter. As an Army officer, he was the graduate of five major military schools including the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Naval War college. He also was a visiting professor at seven universities and lectured at more than 20 universities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Shaw is best known for his work, with Maxwell McCombs of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, on the

agenda-setting theory Agenda-setting theory suggests that the Media (communication), communications media, through their ability to identify and publicize issues, play a pivotal role in shaping the problems that attract attention from governments and international organ ...

and for his studies of 19th and 20th century American and Southern press history. Shaw began work on the agenda-setting theory in 1966 and was joined by McCombs in 1967, when McCombs came to UNC as a junior professor. During the 1968 presidential election, Shaw and McCombs collected survey data from a random group of Chapel Hill residents. McCombs and Shaw demonstrated that audiences often judge the importance of a news item based on how frequently and prominently it is covered by the media, thus indicating the degree to which the media shapes public opinion. McCombs and Shaw's seminal article, ''The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media'', is arguably the most-cited article in the field of mass communication research. In 1977, Shaw and McCombs published ''The Emergence of American Political Issues: The Agenda-Setting Function of the Press'', which the Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly listed as one of the top 35 "significant journalism and communication books" of the 20th century. In 1999, Shaw and his colleagues published the first study of audience agendamelding, the process by which individuals mix messages to create personal images of community. Since then, Shaw and his colleagues have published several agendamelding articles. He is the author, or co-author, of 18 books as well as nearly 70 scholarly articles and approximately 50 scholarly book reviews. In 2012, Shaw was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.

Select Publications

* ''Handbook of Reporting Methods'' (1976) * ''The Emergence of American Political Issues: The Agenda-Setting Function of the Press'' (1977) * ''Foreign News and the New World Information Order'' (1984) * ''The Rise and Fall of American Mass Media: Roles of Technology and Leadership'' (1991) * ''Advanced Reporting: Discovering Patterns in News Events'' (1996) * ''Communication and Democracy: Exploring the intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-setting theory'' (1997) * ''Dancing with Emily'' (2012) * ''Content is King: News Media Management in the Digital Age'' (2015) * ''Agendamelding: News, Social Media, Audiences, and Civic Community'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Donald Lewis 1936 births 2021 deaths Writers from Raleigh, North Carolina Military personnel from North Carolina UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication alumni Mass media theorists

Select Publications

See also

References