s asserts that the issues and information presented on the media agenda become over time the issues and information on the public agenda (Leckenby). This brings us to the two factors that influence an audience when presenting information through a media: the vividness of presentation and the position of a story (Baran 302). These factors, along with others, induce the audience to feel as if a particular story has important issues within the story. The relative importance of these issues is defined as salience (Leckenby). The salience of an issue determines to what degree of importance the audience and the media place on a particular story. The salience of a story in agenda setting determines the salience of the issues within the public agenda (Leckenby). The vividness of presentation is one way to raise the level of salience of an issue. A story that is presented with graphic detail can cause the public perception of the issue involved to greatly increase. If a story is sensationalized by the media, the audience will unconsciously attach themselves to that particular topic. A story that shows graphic details and pictures of the events of that story cause people to feel as if they were a part of that event. For example, pictures of the crash of Flight 800 stick in the audiences mind. This leads the audience to believe that the crash of Flight 800 is an essential story that we must learn more about. The problem with this is that the audience sometimes focuses too heavily on the story to see the issue at hand. This can negatively affect the medias agenda setting power because the story is too detailed for the audience to see the issue behind the story (Baran 302). The position of a story also affects the salience of an issue. If an article on gun violence in schools is on the front page of The Washington Post, the audience perceives that particular story as having great importance within the scheme of current news topics...
