The fact that Al-Jazeera changes public views on certain
issues is important when analyzing media’s influence over foreign policy
objectives. While Robinson argues that “media should be perceived as one of
several factors that affect political decisions, not a main cause for such
decisions”, his explanation in The CNN
Effect Reconsidered: Mapping a Research Agenda for the Future provides strong arguments that media does, in fact,
make a difference. He argues that media has a strong influence during times of policy uncertainty, can significantly determine softer issues such as directing humanitarian assistance, and influence at different levels of the policy stage, such as agenda setting and policy implementation.
Powers and el-Nawawy spoke on this as well in Al Jazeera English and global news networks:
clash of civilizations of cross-cultural dialogue? Viewers who watch
Al-Jazeera English (AJE), they found, become less dogmatic over time and are more
open to considering alternative and clashing opinions. Those who only watched CNN
International and BBC World were more in support of US Policies towards Iraq
while watchers of AJE were more critical of US decisions.
They also talked about how those living in conflict pay more
attention to the news pertaining to them, and that many people who live in the
South find Western news as irrelevant to them since it doesn’t cover issues in
their lands as in-depth as AJE does. At the same time, I personally find it
interesting that the majority of Americans do not pay attention to Western news
either. Going onto websites such as Digg and Yahoo News, among other free news
outlets, one can see that the top news articles have to do with celebrity drama
and Black Friday shopping. Many Americans do tune into CNN, NBC, FOX, and read
papers such as the Washington Post and New York Times daily, but many do so to
reaffirm their beliefs on different issues - and the media writes their stories for that purpose. It would
be interesting to research what Americans would read if we were in a conflict
closer to home – would CNN International, NBC and BBC World switch to informing
us of what is really happening or
reaffirm perceptions that the US will take care of us?
Elaine, your hunch about how Americans would react to a conflict closer to home is something I have often thought about. Here in the United States, we have all been so spoiled and privileged. I think that we often take for granted the fact that we are so lucky to have simply been born in a country where we are not fighting every single day of our lives to survive or to even have the freedom of publishing blog posts on this very matter. I do agree that the CNN effect is a real phenomenon but I do not think that it is as powerful as some people would like to think. I believe there was a part in the article where the author mentioned that many times, policy makers and government officials will do what they want to do regardless. However, they do take into account how the media will tell the story. But to go back to your question about what sources Americans would read if there was a huge conflict close to home, I think that Americans would still use U.S. based sources. Unless the aggressor was located in the UK, Americans would still not read international sources such as the BBC. I think that Americans generally have a lot of pride in this nation and will trust that U.S. based news sources will provide the best news and reaffirm perceptions that the U.S. will get through whatever crisis they are in.
ReplyDeleteElaine--thanks so much for this post! I'd like to agree with Miranda in that the CNN Effect might not be as powerful as some may think. However, I'd argue that it depends on how the media covers such happenings--how they frame it. I feel like this most certainly plays a role in what policy makers talk about or what the president addresses. A current example of this is the Syrian crisis. The "mainstream" coverage has been both sporadic and quite poor (Al Jazeera was highly criticized for this), and of course...the situation in Syria remains the same if not worse. It's things like these that really have me question how true or not true the CNN Effect really is...
ReplyDeleteGaby