Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy / Edition 1

by Philip Seib

Overview

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. It will be of interest to students and scholars in jourbanalism, political communication, and international relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275953751
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/25/1996
Series:	Political Communication Series
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)

About the Author

PHILIP SEIB is Professor of Jourbanalism at Southern Methodist University. He is also a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and a political analyst for WFAA Television, Dallas's ABC affiliate. He is the author of nine books, including Campaigns and Conscience: The Ethics of Political Jourbanalism (Praeger, 1994).

Table of Contents

Preface
Prelude: Mr. Hearst's War
Defining Failure and Success
Pushing the President
The President Pushes Back
Manipulating the Messenger
Does Anyone Care?
The World Is Watching: Real-Time News
After the Devil Has Been Saved
Spheres of Influence
Bibliography
Index