The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign

The CNN Effect examines the relationship between the state and its media, and considers the role played by the news reporting in a series of 'humanitarian' interventions in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Piers Robinson challenges traditional views of media subservience and argues that sympathetic news coverage at key moments in foreign crises can influence the response of Western governments.

Piers Robinson is Lecturer in Political Communication in the School of Politics and Communication Studies at the University of Liverpool.

List of tables

xi

Introduction

1

(1)

Overview

1

(4)

Organisation of chapters

5

(1)

Acknowledgements

6

(1)

The CNN effect considered

7

(18)

Media power and world politics

7

(1)

The 1990s and intervention during humanitarian crises

7

(3)

The CNN effect debate takes off

10

(2)

Manufacturing consent and theories of media--state relations

12

(4)

Observing the `unobservable'

16

(1)

Interview-based research

16

(3)

The importance of theory

19

(1)

Theory-based research

20

(1)

The CNN effect as political control

21

(2)

The CNN effect as political control reconsidered

23

(1)

The need for systematic and theoretically informed research

23

(2)

Developing a theory of media influence

25

(21)

Policy uncertainty

26

(1)

Observing policy uncertainty

26

(1)

Media framing

27

(3)

Developing the policy--media interaction model

30

(2)

The policy--media interaction model: offering an advanced two-way understanding of media--state relations

32

(3)

Wolfsfeld's political contest model of media--state relations

35

(2)

Types of effect

37

(1)

The weak CNN effect

38

(1)

Accelerant and impediment effects

39

(1)

Potential CNN effect

40

(1)

Enabling effect

40

(1)

Testing the CNN effect

41

(2)

Additional research strategies

43

(1)

Case selection

43

(2)

Conclusion

45

(1)

The CNN effect myth

46

(26)

Overview

46

(1)

The 1991--2 civil war in Somalia

46

(1)

US re-engagement in Somalia

47

(1)

The: lead-up to the August 1992 airlift

47

(1)

Operation Restore Hope

48

(1)

Possible causes of intervention

49

(3)

Applying the policy--media interaction model

52

(3)

Media framing after the intervention decision

55

(2)

News media and US intervention in Somalia: a case of manufacturing consent or indexing and not the strong CNN effect

57

(2)

Consideration of other possible routes of media influence

59

(3)

The myth of the strong CNN effect and Somalia

62

(1)

Intervention in northern Iraq: the case of the Kurds

63

(1)

From policy certainty against involvement, to US ground troops in northern Iraq

64

(3)

US media coverage of the Kurdish crisis: emotive and critical of Bush

67

(2)

Assessing the impact: was operation Provide Comfort motivated by media coverage?

69

(2)

The myth of the CNN effect

71

(1)

The CNN effect in action

72

(21)

Overview

72

(1)

Background

72

(1)

US involvement in 1995

73

(2)

US military engagement

75

(3)

Media framing: empathising with refugees and criticising Western policy

78

(3)

`What do we do next?'

81

(1)

Assessing media influence

82

(2)

Recognising the importance of other factors

84

(2)

The 1994 market-place massacre

86

(1)

Policy uncertainty

87

(3)

News media coverage between 5 and 9 February 1994

90

(1)

Assessing the impact

91

(1)

Conclusion

92

(1)

The limits of the CNN effect

93

(24)

Overview

93

(1)

Kosovo

94

(1)

September 1998 to March 1999: the lead-up to US military in intervention

94

(1)

Operation Allied Force

95

(2)

Kosovo and the media

97

(2)

News media empathy and some criticism of official policy

99

(4)

`No intention to use ground troops'

103

(1)

Was there a secret decision to launch a ground invasion?

104

(3)

Media influence: enabling and impediment effects, but no strong CNN effect

107

(1)

Media performance: manufacturing consent or government watchdog?

108

(1)

Media--state relations during the Kosovo campaign

109

(1)

Genocide in Rwanda

110

(1)

PDD 25 and US policy certainty against intervention

111

(3)

Distance framing

114

(1)

Assessment

115

(1)

Media influence and performance during executive policy certainty

116

(1)

The CNN effect reconsidered

117

(16)

Overview

117

(1)

Determining the conditions under which the CNN effect occurs

117

(4)

The strong CNN effect influencing air power intervention during humanitarian crises but not the deployment of ground troops

121

(5)

Future research

126

(2)

Concluding comments: media power in the post-Cold War era

128

(5)

Appendix A: Policy uncertainty

133

(4)

Theoretical development of policy uncertainty

133

(2)

Measuring levels of policy uncertainty

135

(2)

Appendix B: Framing

137

(4)

Measuring framing

137

(2)

Counting keywords

139

(1)

Data source

140

(1)

Appendix C: Testing the policy-media interaction model

141

(2)

Appendix D: Case selection

143

(6)

Selecting an easy case

143

(2)

Selecting a hard case

145

(1)

Selecting cases of non-intervention

146

(3)

Notes

149

(12)

Bibliography and further reading

161

(10)

Index

171

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

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials