American Foreign Policy and Re
Broadcast journalism has been used throughout recent history to shape popular opinion about how governments deal with international issues. If we look at major historical events related to American foreign policy such as the Vietnam war, the Persian Gulf War, the war in the former Yugoslavia, or the events of September 11, 2001 and it's aftermath, they can hardly be imagined without the television images carried into American (and other) homes. The American media giant has a definite impact on what Americans understand about world events and how the US government responds to them. How has this so called "free press" been manipulated in the last three decades of world history? Wars and political movements through out developing nations have been played out on the stage of living room televisions and have held Americans and others as a captive audience. Television is able to rivet people to their televisions for up-to-date live coverage with an unquenchable thirst. The need to know is fed with the presses ideals of "the public has the right to know". Are people manipulated by the news media? One has to wonder if the political gains of the world leaders are connected to their reactions to world events, or do world events cont
What appears to be the case in most situations is for leaders is to prescribe a humanitarian effort, or better yet a systematically planned humanitarian operation in the wake of horrible TV images that lead the public to cry for action. This allows leaders to hold back on more decisive action for a prolonged period of time. For example the Bosnian government saw this procedure in action as a cover for limited political action. IN the view of their UN ambassador Mohammed Sacirbey, "Whenever there was a movement toward greater action, it was not based on any systematic approach to the problem. It was based upon what one saw on the television screen." No TV coverage usually meant no help. Real time television in effect illuminates the problem but does not provide a political solution. Broadcast journalism saw many changes through technological advances after the Vietnam War. The largest and most influential impact to broadcast news came in the form of cable television. As more and more Americans in the early 80's signed up for cable television they found fewer distinctions between cable feeds and the traditional networks. Entrepreneur Ted Turner founded the Cable News Network in 1980, which sparked a revolutionary change in broadcast journalism. CNN was on air 24 hours a day. They used satellite technology to cover major stories from hostage standoffs to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Coverage was live hour after hour. CNN's on scene open eye became the channel to seek when significant news broke. It seems clear the decisive political action occurs in America when Americans see fellow citizens hurt or killed on television. It is a reality of war that most Americans will not accept for a prolong period of time with out clear obtainable objectives laid out before them. Two recent situations come to mind when Americans were almost unanimously in support of a specific political action related to a military conflict, Somalia and September 11. In Somalia Americans called for the immediate cessation of involvement of the conflict, they could not stand to see the horrific sites of their servicemen being killed. The massacre of September 11th has had a different type of reaction from the public and that is of continued support of the war on terrorism. Although that conflict does not appear to have objectives that can be clearly seen as obtainable yet, the continued images of the destruction of the World Trace Center will probably have a long-term effect on the support of the war effort. Another conflict where the American people impacted the decisions of the policy makers, albeit it took a lot longer to accomplish, was the Vietnam War. The first television war is constantly brought back into focus with every conflict America enters. Throughout most commentary on conflicts the US is involved in militarily, you will always hear the comment "we don't want another Vietnam". Americans keep that focus a constant reminder to policy makers that although they will support limited short military action they will never again stand for "another Vietnam". So in affect the American public does affect The new version of television news contained equipment such as a lap top computer, a Marisat telephone, and a portable up-link satellite dish the size of a large umbrella. These were the tools necessary to produce the new and improved form of broadcast journalism, with real-time images. Real-time images are those television pictures beamed back live via satellite from a location. Some believed that although the war effort was less than successful in objective terms, military opinion regarded the Vietnam War as one that could have been won on the battlefield but lost in the living room. It is difficult to ascertain if the conflict was lost because the public turned against the war in Vietnam or if they turned against the war because they had to watch it on television. Some feel that the public who feels the war is justi
Some common words found in the essay are:
Gulf War, Wall Coverage, Vietnam War, Vietnam Americans, War II, Rabel CBS, Sacirbey Whenever, Lyndon Johnson, Communications Professor, Edward Bickham, foreign policy, vietnam war, television images, policy makers, broadcast journalism, television coverage, gulf war, real-time television, political action, world events, persian gulf war, american foreign policy,
Approximate Word count = 2981
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
