Headline Diplomacy
Subtitle: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy (Praeger Series in Political Communication)
Publisher: Praeger Paperback
Published: November 30, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9780275953751
Subjects: Central government policies; Diplomacy; Media studies; Press & journalism; Language Arts & Disciplines; Politics / Current Events; Language; Communication; General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication; 1945-1989; Foreign news; Foreign relations; Press and politics; United States
First sentence: Much of the news media's influence on foreign policy-making is indirect.
Description: Seib explores the many ways in which news coverage shapes the design and implementation of foreign policy. By influencing the political attitudes of opinion-shaping elites and the public at large, the news media can profoundly affect the conduct of foreign policy. Seib's text analyzes important examples of press influence on foreign affairs: the news media's definition of success and failure, as in reporting the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam; how public impatience, fueled by news reports, can pressure presidents, as happened during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81; how presidents can anticipate and control news media coverage, as was done by the Bush administration during the 1991 Gulf War; how press revelation or suppression of secret information affects policy, as in the cases of the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, and various intelligence operations; how coverage of humanitarian crises affects public opinion; the challenges of live TV coverage; and the changing influence of news in the post-Cold War world. By covering a wide range of issues and examples, this important text will stimulate thoughtful appraisal of the relationships between the news media and those who make policy.