This course explores the increasing interaction among citizens (of the U.S. and other countries), 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 do the media influence the conduct and shape of foreign policy – and the fates of people abroad? Do they 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 (in England) the “fourth estate” (following French King 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 the past century, the media served as cheerleader during two world wars, a regional conflict (Korea), and recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. But that role was different 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 and the beginning of the 21st, 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 public opinion. We will explore the interaction between government and journalism, with special focus on international politics. A major goal is to help you become a more informed media consumer, especially on subjects involving national security and international politics.

Our classes may be supplemented by meetings with media representatives and others. There will be several writing assignments and a term paper in lieu of a final exam.