POSC340
Politics and the Media
Fall 1999
Meets: Mon, Wed, Fri 11:15am – 12:05pm
Class location: Gore 320
Professor Ralph J. Begleiter
Office: 235 Pearson Hall
Phone: (302) 831-2687
email: begleite@udel.edu
Office Hours: Mon & Wed 3:30-4:30pm and by appointment
Course Internet page: http://www.udel.edu/communication/POSC340/begleite/POSC340.html
Course Syllabus
Updated 10/26/99
Objectives/Description
With special emphasis on international politics, we'll survey the role the news media play in influencing the development and conduct of foreign policy, asking whether the media "drive" the policy or intervene in the natural course of history.
This class explores the increasing interaction between makers of foreign policy and global news media, especially international television and the internet. Its objective is to analyze this indispensable symbiosis through the examination of case studies. How does the media influence the conduct and shape of foreign policy – and the fates of people abroad? Do the media share responsibility with government officials for successes and failures of policy? Do they bear responsibility for declining interest in international affairs among the American people?
Since Edmund Burke dubbed the news media the “fourth estate” (following Louis XVI’s designation of nobles, clergy and commoners as the first three “Estates,”) journalists have played a varying role in influencing the conduct of global politics. In this century, the media served as cheerleader during two world wars and a regional conflict (Korea). But that role changed during another regional conflict, Vietnam, when journalists exposing the realities of southeast Asia to an American television audience influenced the national leadership’s decision to withdraw.
The influence of the media was already on the increase by virtue of the Watergate years in the early 1970’s, when a technology revolution began profound changes in every form of global communication. By the early 1980’s government officials and the media were engaging in increasingly symbiotic management of international politics. And by the end of that decade, analysts had begun talking about “the CNN Effect” and “the CNN Curve” in geopolitics.
In the last decade of the twentieth century, advances in computer and television technology lent even more power to media actors outside the government and the conduct of world affairs had become a natural part of policy making.
Our objective in this course is to explore these developments and their consequences on policy makers, the media and the public. Seminar discussions will be supplemented by meetings with media representatives and government officials. There will be several writing assignments and a term paper in lieu of a final exam.
Students should also plan to take advantage of this course’s opportunity to work with an experienced, career broadcast journalist who’s traveled the world covering foreign policy for almost two decades.
Requirements
• Four books are required reading and available for purchase at the bookstore. Other required readings will include all or parts of papers and articles, many of which are available on the Media & Politics Internet page, marked with • (see below).
• Students will be expected to keep up with contemporary international politics by reading at least one national newspaper and by watching regular television news broadcasts.
• Two brief writing assignments (1-2 pages) will be required during the semester, based on seminar discussion and readings.
• A term paper of approximately 7-10 pages on a topic agreed in advance by student and professor will be due on Monday November 29, 1999. Students will make presentations on their paper topics at the last few class sessions (see Course Schedule below.)
• All papers must be submitted on time; late papers will automatically reduce grades.
Computer Assignments:
We are committed to developing student computer literacy. This course will include the increasing role computers are playing in driving news and policy. Students will have the following computer-related assignments:
• Each student is required to communicate with the instructor by email (my email address is at the top of this syllabus).
• Students are encouraged to investigate Internet sites as policy information sources, and to evaluate them for content, reliability and timeliness.
• Many documents used in this course will be found on the course Internet site http://www.udel.edu/communication/POSC340/begleite/POSC340.html
as well as in the library. These readings are marked with **. Please familiarize yourself with using this site. To read some of these electronic documents, you’ll need to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader program on your computer; it’s a free, easy-to-install download, available at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
Grading
Writing, thinking and class participation (more than mere attendance) are critical elements of this class. Please remember that (just as in the real-world of policymaking) timeliness counts; late assignments will automatically lose credit. Grades will be based on these elements:
• 30 percent on class discussion participation
• 30 percent on writing assignments
• 40 percent on the final term paper and presentations.
Reading
(portions only, subject to revision)
• Linsky, Martin. Impact: How the Press Affects Federal Policymaking. Norton, 1988. ISBN: 0393957934.
• Seib, Philip. Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Praeger, 1997. ISBN 0275-95375-0.
• Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4.
Supplemental Readings
Articles, Papers & Pamphlets
** Gowing, Nic. Media Coverage: Help or Hindrance in Conflict Prevention? Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, September 1997
** Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S., Jr. Power and Interdependence in the Information Age. Foreign Affairs Vol. 77 No. 5, September/October, 1998.
Koppel, Ted. “The Perils of Info-Democracy” in Crocker, Chester A & Hampson, Fen Osler, Editors. Managing Global Chaos. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1996. ISBN 1-878379-58-5 (p.355) (distributed in class)
** Kull, Steven, Destler, I.M., and Ramsay, Clay. The Foreign Policy Gap: How Policymakers Misread the Public. Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, October, 1997.
** Equipped for the Future: Managing U.S. Foreign Affairs in the 21st Century. Henry L. Stimson Center, October, 1998
** Preventing Deadly Conflict. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Chapter 5 (esp. pp. 121-123 “The Media” & 153 “The Mass media”), December, 1997. (Note: Read only these few pages on the role of the Media.)
** Burt, Richard & Robison, Olin. Reinventing Diplomacy in the Information Age. Center for Strategic & International Studies, November, 1998 (Read Executive Summary)
Livingston, Steven. Clarifying the CNN Effect. Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Research Paper R-18, June, 1997. (distributed in class)
** Lippman, Thomas W. “USIA Sets Its Sites on Yugoslavia.” The Washington Post. April 17, 1999.
** Bohlen, Celestine. “Russians See and Read Another Slant to the War, with Milosevic as Patriot.” The New York Times. April 3, 1999.
** Frankel, Max. “Our Humanity Vs. Their Sovereignty.” The New York Times Magazine. May 2, 1999
Sept 1 (Wed)
Introduction, Syllabus
Assignment: Start reading Taylor (pp x - 98 by Friday 9/8/99)
Sept 3 (Fri)
Topic: Background - Media & The Great Wars
Videotape: Cold War Postscript #4 (“War of Words”)
Sept 6 (Mon) NO CLASS
Sept 8 (Wed)
Topic:The 1970’s - Vietnam
Assignment:
Taylor, Philip M. Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media Since 1945. Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-41511679-1 (pp x - 98)
Sept 10 (Fri)
Topic: The 1970’s - Vietnam
Videotape: Cold War Postscript #11 (“Vietnam”)
Assignment: Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4. (Read chapter 1, pp. 19-56)
Seib pp. 1-29
Sept 13 (Mon)
Assignment: Read Linsky chapters 1-2, pp 1-68
Sept 15 (Wed)
Topic: The 1970’s - Watergate
Sept 17 (Fri)
Catchup - review of readings
Sept 20 (Mon)
Topic: The 1980’s I - Technology Revolution
Assignment: Seib, Philip. Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Praeger, 1997. ISBN 0275-95375-0. (pp. 31-67)
Sept 22 (Wed)
Topic: The 1980’s II - Technology in the Driver Seat
Assignment: Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4. (Read Chapter 3, pp. 91-125)
Sept 24 (Fri)
Topic: The 1990’s - Technology Supersedes Geopolitics
Assignment: Gowing, Nic. Media Coverage: Help or Hindrance in Conflict Prevention? Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, September 1997**
Preventing Deadly Conflict. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Chapter 5 (Read only. pp. 121-123 & 153), December, 1997.**
Note: Paper #1 - due Oct 4, 1999 (1-2 pages)
Answer the question: From your own experience and our readings and class discussions, what are the differences between the news media in the pre-Vietnam era and those in the post-Cold War era?
Sept 27 (Mon)
Topic: Media & Policy today
Assignment:
Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4. (Read Chapter 2, pp. 57-90)
Sept 29 (Wed)
Topic: NO CLASS
Assignment: Work on paper #1 and read for next week.
Oct 1 (Fri) NO CLASS
Assignment: Work on paper #1 and read for next week.
Oct 4 (Mon)
Topic: The National News & The CNN Effect
Assignment:
Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4. (Read Chapters 4- 5, pp. 127-209)
Assignment: Paper #1 due
Oct 6 (Wed)
Topic: The CNN Effect II
Speaker: Steven Livingston (Associate Professor, George Washington U.)
Assignment:
• Livingston, Steven. Clarifying the CNN Effect. Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Research Paper R-18, June, 1997. (Read entire study pp. 1-15)
• Preventing Deadly Conflict. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Chapter 5 (esp. pp. 121-123 & 153), December, 1997.
• Seib, Philip. Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Praeger, 1997. ISBN 0275-95375-0. (pp. 69 - 88)
Oct 8 (Fri) NO CLASS
Oct 11 (Mon)
Topic:
Assignment: Paper #2 due on Oct 29 (Answer the question: Now that the internet, direct-broadcast satellite and cable TV offer more “channels” of information, will the public be better informed or less well informed? (1-2 pages) (See Taylor p 4 & pp 10-11 to prompt your own thinking.)
Oct 13 (Wed)
Topic: Is Anyone listening?
Assignment:
Seib, Philip. Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Praeger, 1997. ISBN 0275-95375-0. (pp. 89-121)
Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy. U.S. Institute of Peace, 1997. ISBN 1-878379-67-4. (Read Chapter 6, pp. 211-234)
Oct 15 (Fri)
Topic: Pundits
Assignment: Read NYT Overholser Talking Through Their Hats**
Oct 18 (Mon)
Topic: Media & International Conflicts
Assignment:
Oct 20 (Wed)
Topic: Preventing International Conflict - Does the Media Have a role?
Speaker: Jane Holl, Exec Director of Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict
Assignment:
Oct 22 (Fri)
Topic: Media & International Conflicts
Assignment:
Oct 25 (Mon)
Topic: How Washington Works I
Oct 27 (Wed)
Topic: How Washington Works II
Assignment: Read Kull on Supplemental readings (www); Friedman op-ed
Oct 29 (Fri)
Topic: Charting the Course of Human Events
CNN Ratings/events chart
Assignment: Paper #2 due
Assignment: Read Kull on Supplemental readings (www)
Nov 1 (Mon)
Topic: Government Behind the Times
Assignment:
Burt, Richard & Robison, Olin. Reinventing Diplomacy in the Information Age. Center for Strategic & International Studies, November, 1998 (Read Executive Summary)
Nov 3 (Wed)
Topic: Government Handling the Press
Speaker: Carol Giacomo (Reuters correspondent)
Assignment: Linsky pp 69-118, 148-168
Nov 5 (Fri)
Topic: Gulf War, Kosovo War, The Next War
Assignment: Taylor pp. 99-139 (optional: pp. 145-203); Frankel (NYT Magazine**)
Nov 8 (Mon)
Topic: Cold War - Afghanistan
Videotape: Cold War #20 Afghanistan
Assignment: Explore web site at: 