What Impact Does The Media And Public Opinion Have On American Foreign Policy - Essay Example

What impact does the media and public opinion have on American foreign policy? America is a democracy and this means that governments need votes from the population if they want to lead the country. One of the most important jobs that a government does is foreign policy. This is very important for the image of the country and it affects the way that people in America feel about themselves, their country and their government. The media have a role in providing information about what the government does, and this helps people to decide which party to vote for.

Sometimes the media are not neutral, however, and this means that people can be influenced in one way or another. Newspapers often question what the government is doing, and they write about international affairs giving several different points of view. This encourages people to think about what is happening and contributes to general education. The existence of the media forces governments to explain what they are doing, and defend their actions. Another role that the media has is to limit the powers of government in situations where they could take extreme actions.

Presidents worry about what people will think of them, and this is a very good thing. O’Hefferman reports that “President Nixon said that the TV reporting of the Vietnam war was “probably the single most significant factor limiting our options there.” (O’Hefferman: 1991, p. 100) In the Iraq war also, television coverage of military funerals influenced people against the war, because it made the deaths of American soldiers more real to them. The live images of bombs being dropped on Iraqi cities, and pictures of injured children and weeping relatives make the human cost of war more visible.

When people saw these images they were shocked and this caused political reactions against America’s policies in Iraq. Politicians can use the press in a positive way to make their views known to their own people and to allies and enemies abroad. Every time when Hilary Clinton goes abroad to do some foreign policy business, her office gives interviews and statements which are reported all over the world. This allows her to reach a much bigger audience than just the people she meets in one place.

The American government promotes the development of all kinds of media across the world for two reasons. The first is because it views a free and independent media system as a basic human right, and the second is because only this kind of media can correctly report American achievements to the people of other countries (Center for Democracy and Governance: 1999, p. 1-7) Sometimes the international media can affect American foreign policy in surprising ways. One example of this is the reporting of President Kennedy’s speech in Berlin in 1963 where he said “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

This statement was reported all over the world because it was not quite correct in German, and sounded like he was saying a he was a donut. This made his visit unforgettable to people in Europe, and especially in Germany. It also made people realise he was human, and trying his best to communicate American friendship in the era of the cold war. The media loved John F. Kennedy and his glamorous wife and this was one of the reasons why he was successful in foreign policy. He also knew how to use the media to improve his popularity: “While Eisenhower seemed to stumble through his answers at press conferences, Kennedy responded sharply with wit and a touch of irony.

” (Combs: 2008, p. 182) There are some foreign policy issues which the international media take very seriously, such as climate change and human rights. Campaigns by newspapers can result in people attending important events like the recent Copenhagen summit on climate change. The reporting of this summit in the Washington post put pressure on the Obama government to keep working harder on this issue, because it pointed out that nothing much had been achieved: “Obama conceded that the commitments included in the deal fell far short of what scientists have said is required to avert dangerous warming.

” (Shear and Wilson: 2009, p.3) The newspaper could have reported this in a more flattering way by saying that President Obama had signed up for a deal, but instead there is a more critical title: “Climate deal falls short of key goals.” This keeps pressure on the president to work harder on this point. References Center For Democracy and Governance. 1999. The Role of Media in Democracy: A Strategic Approach. Washington DC: USAID. Available at: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/democracy_and_governance/publications/pdfs/pnace630.

pdf Coombs, J. A. 2008. The History of American Foreign Policy: From 1895. New York: M.E. Sharpe. O’Hefferman, P. 1991. Mass Media and American Foreign Policy: insider perspectives on global journalism and the foreign policy process. Westport, CY: Ablex Publishing. Shear, M. D. and Wilson, S. December 19, 2009. Climate deal falls short of key goals. Washington Post.