What if I told you each communication sent out is created with an agenda? It is designed to persuade you, to get you to think a certain way, and to see through a specific lens.

A strategic communicator’s first question is, How do we get attention to our issue? Next they have to start setting their agenda. This is a very simplified version of my personal SC strategy. What information will I show my audience? What information will I conceal from my audience? How will I persuade my audience of the relative importance of the information that I have chosen to show? (Capella 2016, 676; Scheufele and Tewksbury 2007, 15)

So, as you consume data, think of these three questions.

1. What information are you being shown?
2. What information do you believe is being concealed?
3. Am I being persuaded to believe something specific?