MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA
give the policy-makers a message on how the audience (i.e. voters) see
their actions, and therefore the media are controlling the policy makers.
3 Role of Media in decision-making process in foreign
politics
“Live television coverage does not change the policy, but it does create
the environment in which the policy is made.” 19
Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State of the United States (1991)
In the context of the above mentioned framing, it is necessary to say that
framing is not a brand new characteristics of media but due to spread
of communication technologies among the most ordinary people, the
framing was given a very new essence. This occurred mainly in the early
1990s when during the Gulf War the CNN TV News Channel literally
became one of the actors of international relations seen as an inspiration
to other world-wide broadcasting media (e.g. BBC) in 24/7 coverage.
Since then, the media have been able to report events (and mainly war
reporting) happening anywhere in the world and in the real time, and
the world had been experiencing the CNN effect, as a new phenomenon
not only in media but also in politics. 20
As given by Etman, framing is understood as “speciic properties of
… narrative that encourage those … thinking about events to develop
particular understandings of them”. 21 Robinson 22 moreover distinguishes
two types of framing, one as “empathy framing” and the other as “distance
framing”. The irst one is composed of implicit or explicit criticism of a
policy? [online]. [2015-09-03]. Available at: ,
p. 301.
19 McNULTY, T. J.: Television‘s Impact On Executive Decision making And
Diplomacy. In Fletcher Foreign World Affairs, 1993, No. 17, p. 80.
20 The term “CNN effect” is used to express the power of the media to
inluence policy- makers in the process of foreign policy – making, for
example in case of war conlicts.
21 ENTMAN, R.: Framing US coverage of international news: contrasts in
narratives of the KAL and Iran air incidents. In Journal of Communication,
1991, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 7.
22 ROBINSON, P.: The policy-media interaction model: measuring media
power during humanitarian crisis. In Journal of Peace Research, 2000, Vol.
37, No. 5, p. 613-633.
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