TERRORISM DILEMMAS AND DEMOCRACY of historical ‘reality’ should then be reflected in the contemporary news media coverage of the Rohingya. The theoretical underpinning: Agenda-setting and framing The importance of the news media in interpreting reality is based on the notion of cognitive media effects—the argument that media coverage both influences and is influenced by public opinion. In the case of this research, such an understanding of cognitive media effects underscores how the mediated reality of legitimacy and belonging of Rohingya refugees is constructed by the Bangladeshi press and by extension the Bangladeshi community. The news media in this sense is seen both as a reflection of Bangladeshi social attitudes and a factor influencing future changes in attitude. Gamson and Modigliani present media coverage and its impact on public opinion and attitude as a system in dynamic equilibrium where one informs and influences the other. They state ‘we do not... argue that changes in media discourse cause changes in public opinion. Each system interacts with the other: media discourse is part of the process by which individuals construct meaning, and public opinion is part of the process by which journalists and other cultural entrepreneurs develop and crystallise meaning in public discourse’ (1989, p. 2). Theoretical work on agenda setting posits media consumers are more likely to recall news events that receive significant coverage—suggesting the media is able to influence what people think about by selecting some media agendas and not others (Baumgartner & Jones, 2010; McCombs, 1997; Zaller, 1992). McCombs and Shaw (1972) claim news media assigns importance through the processes of news selection, the relative positioning of news and the frequency of coverage provided. Seminal studies on media framing, suggest the news media not only tells “readers what to think about” as posited in agenda setting theory, but they do indeed frame news in such a way so as to influence how readers or their audience think. Entman (1993) notes that frames are different from agendas, suggesting salience in frames is not achieved through mere repetition. He presents the concept of framing as an active process, arguing that framing essentially involves selection and salience. Entman notes ‘to frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to’ define problems, diagnose causes that create the problem, make moral judgements by evaluating the causal agents, and offer remedies to the problem (Entman, 1993, p. 52). Gitlin notes media frames are ‘largely unspoken and unacknowledged, organise [sic] the world both for journalists who report it and, in some important degree, for us who rely on their reports’ (1980, p7). According to frame theory, news frames therefore play a crucial role in both the construction of media frames by news makers, and the subsequent unpacking and 264 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 25 (1 & 2) 2019