Saturday, 05 December 2015 Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai 1 CLARIFYING THE CNN EFFECT – Media effects.
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Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
1
CLARIFYING THE CNN EFFECT – Media effects and military interventionBy Steven Livingston
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
2
Has the media expanded their ability to affect the conduct of US diplomacy and foreign policy?
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
3
• The impact of 24x7 television on government policy is dubbed as the ‘CNN Effect’ or the ‘CNN curve’ or the ‘CNN factor’.
• This impact of new global, real-time media is typically regarded as substantial, if not profound.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
4
Two factors joined to bring this about
• The end of the Cold War, the passing of which presented a lack of rationale for the US to formulate its foreign policy and;
• Advances in communication technology that created a capacity to broadcast live from anywhere on Earth.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
5
Differentiating CNN effects
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
6
• For many journalists, policy makers and scholars there is little doubt that media affect foreign policy process.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
7
• “In this age image means television, and policies seem increasingly subject, especially in democracies, to the images flickering across the television screen” – James Schlesinger, former Defense Secretary.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
8
• Yet, a key variable to media’s effect on foreign policy is not the presence or absence of cameras, but rather the presence or absence of political leadership.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
9
The growing literature on the CNN effect suggests at least three conceptually distinct and analytically useful understandings of media’s effect on the foreign policy process.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
10
The CNN effect is…
• A policy agenda-setting agent• An impediment to the achievement
of desired policy goals, and;• An accelerant to policy decision
making.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
11
The agenda setting function
• Emotional, compelling coverage of atrocities or humanitarian crises reorder foreign policy priorities. Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti are given as examples
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
12
Media as Accelerant
• Media shortens decision-making response time. Television diplomacy evident. During time of war, live, global television offer potential security-intelligence risks. But media may also be a force multiplier, method of sending signals. Evident in most foreign policy issues to receive media attention.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
13
Media as Impediment
• Two types: a) Emotional, grisly coverage may
undermine morale. Government attempts to sanitize war (emphasise on video game war), limit access to the battlefield.
b) Global, real-time media constitute a threat to operational security.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
14
• The pre-global television age included a scramble to find a means to achieve what is today one of the chief characteristics of the CNN effect: accelerated, real-time diplomacy.
• Today instantaneous transmission of diplomatic signals via global media is routine.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
15
• While the new environment constitutes a significant change it is unclear whether this is necessarily injurious to sound policymaking.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
16
Media as impediment
• Following the decisive American military victory in the Persian Gulf in 1991, President George Bush Sr had remarked, “By God, we have kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all”.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
17
What had happened differently in the Gulf War?
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
18
• The fear of an unsanitized presentation of the carnage of battle was perhaps central to the military’s efforts to control the media through the sue of press pools and military escorts.
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
19
• “We were escorted away from most of the violence because the bodies of the dead chopped up by artillery, pulverised by B-52 raids, or lacerated by friendly fire don’t play well politically” – John J Fialka, Correspondent, Wall Street Journal
Tuesday 18 April 2023
Sanjay Ranade, Head, Department of
Communication and Journalism, University of
Mumbai
20
Media effect-as-policy-impediment
• The psychological effect. It concerns the corrosive effect that some types of media content may have on public opinion, particularly public support for war.
• Violations of operational security.
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