The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention by Piers Robinson

The main theory discussed in this paper will be the CNN Effect. This theory, which has been argued fairly interestingly by Piers Robinson in his book The CNN Effect: the Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention (2002), claims that gripping and sometimes even gruesome television images, particularly those dealing with humanitarian crisis, greatly increase U.S. policymakers decision to intervene in a crisis when that particular event would normally not be of any interest to the United States. This theory is meant to portray the immense power mass media has over the government. It was during World War II that mass media first became such an important element to the war time efforts. It became extremely easy for the war to be broadcasted by major television broadcast companies throughout most of the world. The many wars that followed World War II (the Cold War, Vietnam, Gulf War, and other conflicts) were broadcasted with even more ease by major news companies such as NBC, BBC, and CNN. These networks became and are still to this day some of the most powerful broadcasters of the war time activities (Gilboa, 2005). As these major conflicts and wars followed many senior political officials soon began to recognize how their policies were affected by the mass media even if it was in a remedial way. Even though there are many other ways in which policy makers are affected, this particular paper is going to takes a more narrow viewpoint of the CNN Effect and only focus on the news media aspect of the theory. As stated by Robinson in his book The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention: “The focus is on one variable, the media, which are widely understood to play an important role in influencing US-led interventio...

... middle of paper ...

...ternational relations. Political Communication, 22, 27-44.

2. Gowing, N. (1994). Real time television coverage of armed conflicts and diplomatic crises: Does it pressure or distort foreign policy decision. President and Fellows of Harvard College.

3. Jakobsen, P. V. (2000). Focus on the CNN effect misses the point: The real media impact on conflict management is invisible and indirect. Journal of Peace Research, 27(2), 131-143.

4. Robinson, P. (1999). The CNN effect: Can the news media drive foreign policy? Review of International Studies, 25, 301-309.

5. Robinson, P. (2002). The CNN effect: the myth of news, foreign policy, and intervention. London: Routledge.

6. Kogen, Lauren, and Monroe E Price. 2011. "Deflecting the CNN effect: public opinion polling and Livingstonian outcomes." Media, War & Conflict 4, no. 2: 109-123. Communication & Mass Media Complete