A population is always engaged in an ongoing discourse about what it is, what it values and what it should be. This can be seen in its rawest form on the editorial pages of tabloid newspapers, but it is implicit in the media, in the activities and rhetoric of politicians, artists and public commentators, in the aggregate spending habits of the population, in the places they go on holiday and the subjects they study at university.
The most important channel for this discourse is the news and opinion media, which choose and frame the issues of the day and develop and promote a population