The media's ability to choose which issues or topics get attention.

• A. Beat
• B. Citizen journalism
• C. Agenda setting
• D. Voter fatigue

Answer: (C)

Agenda setting is the media’s power to shape what issues people think are important by choosing what to cover and how much attention to give it. When news outlets dedicate substantial space, airtime, or emphasis to a topic, they signal its importance, guiding both public concern and policy focus. Classic research with McCombs and Shaw showed that the press can influence the salience of issues—what people think about—more than it tells them what to think about, meaning the issues that dominate coverage rise in public and political importance even if other topics haven’t changed.

Why the other terms don’t fit as well: a beat is simply a reporter’s assigned area of coverage, not a mechanism for shaping what the public prioritizes; citizen journalism refers to user-generated reporting rather than the centralized power of mainstream media to set agenda; voter fatigue describes a phenomenon where voters become disengaged, not a process by which media determine issue salience.