How, if at all, does CNN representation of Islamic terrorist by CNN that shape on public opinion matter for foreign policy making?
In the information age, the advancement of news media leads to rapid dissemination of news, easy access to global events. It also makes the world community closely interconnect. The information from news media not only arouse strong public opinion, but also influence on the policy-making process in both domestic and foreign dimensions, especially the issue that relate to national security.
At the present, it cannot deny that the rise of the Islamic terrorism issue has drawn the world attention. The mass media is the window to open global events from a one continent to the other side of the world. For general public, the only mean to access the Islamic terrorism issue is from the mass media report. In this essay, I research on the presentation of the Islamic terrorism by the CNN and how it influences on the US foreign policy. The CNN (the Cable News Network) is the famous American basic cable and satellite television channel. It broadcasts domestically and internationally for provide a 24-hour news coverage. The Islamic terrorism is also the interested and selling-point issue for the CNN, especially since the 9/11 attacks.
Main argument:
I would argue that the presentation of Islamic terrorism by CNN could influence on US foreign policy in the model of linear ____. To more describe, the work of CNN might not directly influence on the policy making process of the US foreign policy, but the CNN representation of Islamic terrorism shapes general public opinion about national threat and then affect to the policy making process of the US foreign policy. At the same time, the policy maker might use CNN as a tool to announce their strategy and attempt to persuade public opinion to agree with them.
To answer this question, it will be separated into three main sections as follows:
– First, the presentation of Islamic terrorism by CNN
– The relations of CNN to public opinion
– The relations of public opinion to policy making
The presentation of Islamic terrorism by CNN
After the 9/11 attacks in the 2001, it has created the new image of terrorism. In the present, when people talk about the term of terrorism. it tends to automatically conjure up the image of Islamic extremist. This result from the way that several leading media agencies try to negatively present them (Gerges, 2003; Winegar, 2008; Zulkifli, 2009; Yusof, et al., 2013). What is the origin term of terrorism? Terrorism might have varied meanings, but the general meaning of terrorism is “(threat of) violent action for political purposes” (Cambridge, n.d.). Hoffman (1998, p.32) proposed the idea of terrorism as the use of violence for reaching the goal of ideology, religion, or politics. At the present, the world society has perceived terrorism as the considerable threat and consider it as a violation of anti-terrorism laws on several jurisdictions. Moreover, it is represented as a war crime under the law of war because most of it aim at attack on non-militants such as innocent civilians and neutral military personnel.
The representation of Islamic terrorism by the CNN is wildly disseminated by the CNN effect. The term of CNN effect is coined in 1991 after the considerably increasing concern among international relations observers over the influence of the CNN on the decision-making process of U.S foreign policy (Livingston, 1997, p.1). Moreover, as Robinson (2013) summarized about the interesting idea about the CNN effect and the role of media in the seminar about 24 Hour Media and War: 20 Years of the CNN effect that, “the term of the CNN effect came to be understood as shorthand for the notion that mainstream news media in general, not just CNN, were having an increased effect upon foreign policy formulation. Today, and despite the overshadowing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the issue of the role of media in terms of driving political responses remains a source of considerable academic interest”. The role of the CNN and other US domestic medias could influence on US-led responses to international crisis such as the Kurdish crisis (Northern Iraq) in 1911, the Somali Civil War in 1992, Bosnian War in around 1994-1995, and Kosovo War in 1999.
In addition, from the conclusion of study on Portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the Talk Shows of CNN and Fox News (2007-2009) by Pervez and Saeed (2010, p.137) reflected that the US media such as CNN and Fox News Talk shows attempted to present biased information about Islam and Muslims and provided less opportunity for Muslim to voice their opinion. Besides, the US media tended to heavily focusing on the other negative dimension of them than the positive dimension of Islam and Muslim. The study also showed that the US talk shows mostly understood Islam as the religion of rampage and the major root of terrorism. The representation of Islam in the news media is chiefly produced by the idea of monolithic group of people that has the core concept completely differ from and danger to the west mainstream belief, such as Christianity, democracy, and liberty. The marked contradictory perspective about the the Islamic people from the description by the Western world create bipolarity understanding about Islam (Gundez, 2007; Pervez and Saeed, 2010, p.123).
The relations of CNN to public opinion
To understand how the presentation of Islamic terrorism influence on the US foreign policy, it should consider this idea by multifaceted dimension. As Gilboa (2005, p.39) describe that the idea of the CNN effect on policymaking is complicated and multifaceted than It seems. It needs to be considered as triangular relationship between policy-making, media report, and public opinion, as well as the the influence of global mass media on policy-making. The idea of triangular relationship could be a model to describe how the presentation of Islamic terrorism by the CNN influence on the US foreign policy.
Robinson (2010, p.28) describe about the two framing means of the news reporting that influence on foreign affair and diplomacy as well as attract elites and general audience attention. First, “distance framing” is presenting report by shaping the perception of emotional distance between the audience and the conflict victim. Second, “supporting framing” is mainly related with the performance of government policy. Both two modes of framing are implicitly supportive function of national government and military policy.
Jasperson and El-Kikhia (2003, p.113) described about the media framing or “second level of agenda setting” (McCombs, 1992; Jasperson and El-Kikhia, 2003, p.113). It is a mechanism of control on journalists for presenting issues to the general public by applying a fabric of interpretation. That is to say, “media coverage is characterized by an active construction, selection, and structuring of information to organize a particular reality in a meaningful manner for the public” (Gamson, 1992; Jasperson and El-Kikhia, 2003, p.114). น่าจะเกี่ยว มากกว่า
Altheide (2009, p.43) describe about the politics of fear that the news media use the emotional and empathy related terms such as fear, crime, and victim with the terrorism topic for building public discourse.
The mainstream media in the US could support foreign policy maker to frame scope within which foreign policy can be formulated (Dorman, 1993; Gerges, 2003, p.82). And, there are the evidence from the presentation of Islam and Muslim by the mainstream media, that tends to present in the negative way and relate them to a cause of significant disadvantage for US public opinion (Gerges, 2003, p.82).
The connection between the media and terrorism has broadly acknowledged as ‘an almost symbiotic relationship’. News agency exploit the violent and exciting stories of terrorism as a selling point (Spencer, 2012, p.6). The CNN might attempt to present unbiased information of conflict between the west and the rest, in the same time, it also present information that meet the consumer need. Therefore, the influence of the news network creates the opposition between us and them (the other). What people receive from the news can leads be a tool for justify their intention to begin conflict between group of people. In this case, the CNN also plays an important role as a one function of the national culture for presenting and shaping the power, value, and culture of nation to the general public. (Zingarelli, 2010, p.69-70). เอาเรื่อง clash มาใส่ได้ เพื่อแสดงให้เห็นว่า the CNN สร้างความแตกต่างระหว่างตะวันตกและ the rest
In addition, Gerhards and Schafer (2014) analyzed about how terrorist attacks are presented in the news of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and ARB during the 9/11 attacks. They described that all the major global news media have the close similarities of news coverage way. All of these news media outlets attempt to evaluate the attacks as a significant role of the media that should present the moral evaluation to the general public. In the case of negative evaluation by CNN, it could be clearly seen from the word uses such as criminal and attacks are termed as insane (12 Novermber 2005). This kind of negative evaluation also emphasized repeatedly by all reporters and even the high-ranked persons and critics. Moreover, there are interesting detail about the way that the attack is interpreted and visualized by the CNN, the CNN attempt to present the attacks as an international big issue in the global scale by presenting a world map of international terrorism even the fact that the attacks’ place is only located in the USA (Gerhards and Schafer, 2014, p.12-13).
The CNN presentation of Islamic terrorist under the War on Terror idea is different from the other news media agencies. The term of War on Terror is first presented by President Bush, the Bush’s government and the Western media have used this term as the concept to fight against terrorist group and pro-terrorist political regimes, and this term was initially emphasized on Islamic terrorism-related countries such as al-Qaeda (Schmitt and Shanker, 2005).The CNN interpret the fight of the Islamic terrorist as “an expression of a geopolitical conflict” between transnational Islamic terror networks and the liberal Western democratic nations **us and them**that have the U.S. government as the main leader (Reese and Lewis, 2009; Gerhards and Schafer, 2014, p.13). And, it seems that during the 2003 Iraq war the presentation of Islamic terrorist issue had taken a significant part in the CNN news coverage as Adey, Livington, and Herbert (2005, p.17; Robinson, 2005, p. 347) summarized that “non of the network ran many show about or pictures of US or civilian casualties. FNC and CNN’s Lou Dobbs Show ran virtually none. In addition, all of the American networks largely ignored any antiwar sentiment”.
กล่าวใจความสำคัญในส่วนนี้ คือ with Saroka (2003, p.28) that described the media is the bridge that has connected the policy maker to the public by the role of mass media. The media is the channel for the policy maker to research on the public opinion, while the public also mainly follow the policymaker’s performance from the media, especially it is the main way for the general public to access foreign affairs information. นอกจากนี้ ข่าวสารที่ได้รับจากสื่อ ยังไม่มีส่วนในการสร้างความเห็นของประชาชนทั่วไปที่มีต่อนโยบายระหว่างประเทศ From this part, it could reflect that the CNN and the US policy maker has a strong relationship. The influence of CNN on general public can influence the political leader to develop policy in the way general public need and the CNN itself can be a tool of political leader to convey their policy for requiring public approval. At the same time, the concept frame that is provided by the political leader also could shape the way of news coverage. (หาที่มาดั่งเดิมและเชื่อมโยงให้ดี)
– น่าจะเพิ่มเติมความเห็นของ Clash of civilization
Most of the representation of the war on terror tends to include the framing of moral evaluation such as the language of highly moralistic rectitude and humanitarianism (Kavoori and Fraley, 2006, p.8).
Neuman (1996, pp.15-16; Gilboa 2005, p.29) described that when foreign crisis news is broadly and repeatedly presented by CNN, it is unavoidable to catch the attention and arouse sympathy of large general public to react this issue, this affect on forcing political leader to take action in order to retain or gain their popularity.
From this section, it can be summarized that the presentation of Islamic terrorism issues by the CNN tends to biased by focusing on the side that can draw attention of major American public, such as the coverage that can create public empathy and arouse the public opinion.
There is the research show that after the 9/11 attack around 18 months, the wildly use of the fear to underline terrorist in news reports change public discourse about fear. (Altheide, 2009, p.44)
The relations of public opinion to policy making
The CNN effect is significantly influence on public opinion. And, according to the concept of public opinion in democratic country, there is studies on public opinion and public policy show that foreign policy is influenced by public opinion, especially an essential issue for general public, it tends to have a strong influence on public policy (Burstein, 2003, p.29). However, in the case of War on Terror, there draw criticism over the public’s actual influence on US foreign policy making, especially during President George W. Bush and his policy against terrorism. The CNN effect is the mean that breaking news use to influence foreign policy decision (Schorr, 1998, p.413; Gilboa, 2005, p.29).
There is the study suggested that the relations of public opinion to foreign policy making is inconsistent and no structure of coherence, as well as the public unsophisticatedly follows political leaders (Baum and Potter, 2008, p.44)
During the Iraq was that was began in 2003, there are rising opposition of the the Iraq War around the world. อะไรคือ อิรักวา บุชทำอะไร ทำไมถึงได้รับคะแนนลดลง In the US, Newsweek (2007) conducted poll in 21 June 2007, before he will leave the US president position in 19 months. It shows that there are 73 percent of disapproval rate from Americans to the Bush’s government about administrating Iraq.
The media was blamed by Bush’s government as the cause of biasing public opinion to against the War in Iraq. President Bush (2003; Baum and Potter, 2008, p.40) stated “We are making good progress in Iraq. Sometime it’s hard to tell when you listen to the filter (media)”
CNN (2005) report that President Bush insisted on arguing that the invasion of Iraq policy by US government must remain to battle, the purpose is for prevent Iraq from entering to a failed state that terrorist group will continue their operation of attacks to other countries for fulfilling their ideology of Islamic extremist. And, he also overlook the voice from the public who opposed the US invasion of Iraq that said, this invasion not for stopping the terrorists but strengthening it.
Even if during the first period of War on Terror, President Bush was significantly supported by the American public. According to the poll เอาแกลลูปโพมาแปะ, however, it not means that the voice of American Public will importantly influence on policy making. In this case, the matter is the decision of policy maker.
According to the perspective of realism, in the process of policy making
Arnold (2011a, p.54) said “Media do not necessarily influence policymakers directly, but may work through public opinion by shaping what people know and believe about foreign politics. Public opinion, embodied, for instance, in predominant political views or in election results, can have considerable influence on policymakers that need approval from the electorate”. Therefore, it is the task for policymakers to respond the need of public opinion in order to gain approval from constituency. In addition, she claimed that presenting issue to the public by attracting attention and empathy from majority is the way that media use to impact on foreign policy, because this can stimulate the public demand on foreign policy from their elected representative (Arnold, 2011b).
This agree with Baker (1995) Idea that the shift in the concept of American news coverage and the mean of government formulate foreign policy have been influenced by the CNN. This can be supported by a study that was conducted by Gowing (1994), it shows the opinion of several American officials acknowledged the prominent role of the CNN has crucially influenced the method of the U.S foreign policy-making. Also, Soroka (2003, p.27) stated that “while early research suggested that the effects of public opinion on foreign policy were slight, recent studies indicate that public opinion often has measurable impact on U.S. foreign policy (e.g., Hartley and Russett, 1992; Hill, 1998; Sobel, 2001; Welzien, 1996)”
For example from the 2015 terror attack in the US, according to Clement and Eliperin (2015), they reported the news about “American more fearful of a major terror attack in the US, poll finds (20 November 2015)”, It shows that from the Post-ABC poll showed after the Paris attacks, American general public want the US government to participate in a military response to the Paris attacks, as well as increasing number of military troops to battle with the Islamic state as they claimed the Paris attacks was their operation. This has also led to an increased dissatisfaction of President Obama about his action to terrorism. This dissatisfaction was reflected from the vote of the House, that shows 289 votes to 173 votes to restrict Syrian and Iragi refugees from entering to the US. In addition, it shows the rating by public about the action with terrorism by the president Obama have decrease to a recode-low 40 percent, while 35 percent still support his present action to the Islamic state (Clement and Eliperin, 2015).
After the San Bernardino attack in California in 2015, that result to death of 14 victims. Plus, the downtrend of satisfaction rate of dealing with terrorism by President Barack, it provoked the government to deal with the threat of terrorism. The New York Times (6 November 2015) reported that, after this occurrence of this event, President Barack had speech from the Oval office that, he promised to increase number of airstrikes for fighting with the Islamic state, as well as planed to increase international coalition and reasonable operation for dealing with leaders of targeted terrorist’s group. Even though this might not be an obvious intention to have considerable change of US foreign policy about taking serious action to fight with terrorist threat at both domestic and international, it was conveyed the government’s efforts about fighting against the Islamic state to American general public (Harris and Shear, 2015).
Conclusion
The policy maker