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Do the Media Make Foreign Policy?
| Article
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11821 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1994 |
2,231 Words |
| Author
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Paula J. Dobriansky and Diana A. McCaffrey
Paula J. Dobriansky, a former director of European and Soviet
affairs at the National Security Council, is an adjunct fellow
at the Hudson Institute. Diana A. McCaffrey is a foreign media
analyst at the U.S. Information Agency. The views expressed in
this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the views of the Clinton administration. |
Today, with the unprecedented growth of a pervasive global media, foreign policymakers and the media interact in a highly complex and symbiotic way. This resulting paradigm can be described as the media influencing foreign policy making, and foreign policymakers manipulating the media.
The scope of media impact in American foreign policy was addressed in Patrick O'Heffernan's empirical study of press influences on foreign policy in Mass Media and American Foreign Policy. O'Heffernan found that the media "have a pervasive influence in the foreign policy process, shaping the tone, style and emphasis of U.S. foreign policy in various ways and to varying degrees."
The study showed that, in addition to these "pervasive influences," the media have played an "active role" in U.S. foreign-policy development and execution. The combination of the two media forces has resulted in "a new foreign policy that is media-influenced."
O'Heffernan describes the media as playing various roles in the foreign-policy-making process, among them "agenda setting," "diplomatic proxy," and "television diplomacy." Agenda setting is perhaps the most frequent role the press plays. Press coverage of an event--particularly on television--can put a region or an issue on the nation's foreign-policy agenda.
For instance, the crisis in Somalia was made an unavoidable U.S. foreign-policy priority through nightly broadcasts flashing graphic scenes of starving, emaciated women and children. Such images make it almost impossible not to get engaged; they also make a U.S. response urgent.
Yet, just like some events covered by the media call out for action, others inspire isolationist responses. Ironically, the Somalian crisis contains examples of both. Images of U.S. soldiers captured and dead bodies desecrated brought horror into the living rooms of millions of Americans, stirring their emotions and fueling public demands for U.S. withdrawal.
Conversely, the noncoverage of a situation--note the conflict in Bosnia has less words and pictures devoted to it in the press these days--alters the immediacy of the drama.
In its agenda-setting role, the media have also played an extremely positive and unique function in highlighting developments that otherwise might have been overlooked by
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