An ever-widening mediascape brings the hope that a greater plurality of views, issues and attributes will see the light of public attention.

Last week while the Pope was in Sydney and World Youth Day dominated the media agenda, the founding father of media agenda-setting flew in for a quick visit after speaking at the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference in New Zealand and, while attracting a much smaller audience, had some interesting things to say.

Professor Max McCombs who gained worldwide attention in 1972 after publishing research with his colleague Donald Shaw showing media set the agenda of issues during the 1968 US Presidential election, has evolved his views since, but says the media are still setting and framing the agenda of issues and debate.

But now there is a much wider range of media bringing issues to public attention and giving them salience...