CNN effect

Abstract: This study investigates the decade long effort to construct and validate a communications theory of international relations that asserts that global television networks, such as CNN and BBC World, have become a decisive actor in determining policies and outcomes of significant events. It systematically and critically analyzes major works published on this theory, known also as the CNN effect, both in professional and academic outlets. These publications include theoretical and comparative works, specific case studies, and even new paradigms. The study reveals an ongoing debate on the validity of this theory and concludes that studies have yet to present sufficient evidence validating the CNN effect, that many works have exaggerated this effect, and that the focus on this theory has deflected attention from other ways global television affects mass communication, journalism, and international relations. The article also proposes a new agenda for research on the various effects of global television networks.

Abstract: Introduction 1. The CNN Effect Considered 2. Developing a Theory of Media Influence 3. The CNN Effect Myth 4. The CNN Effect in Action 5. The Limits of the CNN Effect 6.The CNN Effect Reconsidered

Abstract: During the 1980s the proliferation of new technologies transformed the potential of the news media to provide a constant flow of global real-time news. Tiananmen Square and the collapse of communism symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall became major media events communicated to Western audiences instantaneously via TV news media. By the end of the decade the question was being asked as to what extent this ‘media pervasiveness’ had impacted upon government – particularly the process of foreign policy making. The new technologies appeared to reduce the scope for calm deliberation over policy, forcing policy-makers to respond to whatever issue journalists focused on. This perception was in turn reinforced by the end of the bipolar order and what many viewed as the collapse of the old anti-communist consensus which – it was argued – had led to the creation of an ideological bond uniting policy makers and journalists. Released from the ‘prism of the Cold War’ journalists were, it was presumed, freer not just to cover the stories they wanted but to criticise US foreign policy as well. The phrase ‘CNN effect’ encapsulated the idea that real-time communications technology could provoke major responses from domestic audiences and political elites to global events.

Abstract: * Introduction *1. Theory - structural transformation of the global public sphere? *1.1 System connectivity *1.2 System change *1.3 System interdependence *2. International reporting - 'No further than Columbus...' *2.1 The world-view of international reporting *2.2 The global non-dialogue of 11 September 2001 *2.3 The Iraq War 2003: war reporting in the far from obsolete nation state *2.4 The myth within the myth: the 'CNN effect' *3. Satellite television - the renaissance of world regions *3.1 Cross-border media use and the triumph of the monolingual middle classes over cosmopolitan elites *3.2 Global television and the 'spiral of silence' afflicting democratisation *3.3 The regionalisation of the media in geo-linguistic areas: 'Huntington' on the small screen *3.4 The case of al-Jazeera: an 'Arab CNN'? *4. Film and programme imports - entertainment culture as the core of media globalisation *4.1 Who's afraid of Uncle Sam? Relativising American cultural hegemony *4.2 How the globalisation of entertainment culture helps permeable national cultures modernise *5. The Internet - the Information Revolution which came too late for the 'Third Wave of democratisation' *5.1 The Net as Tower of Babel *5.2 The digital divide *5.3 Virtual cosmopolitanism *5.4 The 'Zapatista effect' *6. International broadcasting - from national propaganda to global dialogue and back again *6.1 After 11 September: the new war in the ether *6.2 Interdependence gaps and attempts at reform *7. Media and immigration - ethnicity and transculturalism in the media age *7.1 Cultural exiles and bi-culturals: immigrant media use *7.2 A persistent cultural deficit: xenophobia in the age of global media *8. Media policy - why the state continues to play a role *8.1 The 'New World Information Order' in the age of globalisation: the rudiments of a pancapitalist vision