I believe it's important to examine one of the more powerful gatekeepers, the government (politicians). Their careers are based on public approval and acceptance in order to gain voter support, so it should come as no surprise that they are constantly concerned with setting specific media agendas. An example is the present Democratic race in the United States, someone such as John Kerry is making sure that the news we hear about him is positive and gains trust in voters. Therefore emphasis is placed on things such as his trip to inner city schools threatened with closures or on his goals to improve health care in the U.S. All of this is framed to get you to think about how suitable he would be as president. Agenda setting is another way to reinforce hegemony, it is basically letting those in power control what we receive. I believe it's important for us to remember that every good company has an even better public relations representative, another type of agenda setter. Their primary job is to ensure that the public receives information that will profit the main interest trying to be conveyed or the focus person involved. If there isn't one person behind the agenda setting you will find what Robert Merton called "interest aggregations". This term symbolizes groups of people who attempt to receive as much coverage as possible to promote an idea or their self interest. .
Who is affected by agenda setting? Most would like to believe that our society is aware that agenda setting take place and therefore take the time to think about the information they are given. Unfortunately I believe we live in a very influential world where people put way too much trust in what the media tells them. We, as a society, have become lax and choose to not always look deeper into something than we should/. Those that undertake this are receptive to the media agenda. They have a need for guidance and are usually quite uncertain about issues and let what they see influence them.