Propagating Terror: 9/11 and the Mediation of War

2002 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
The Media ◽  
Ideological Perspective

Academic and public analysis of the media's performance during the 9/11 and Afghanistan wars are critically influenced by the specific ideological perspective of the analyst. Those commentators who support the reprisal attacks against bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban tend to commend the media, identifying a substantial confluence between state interests, public opinion and media reporting. Alternatively, commentators such as Noam Chomsky who are highly critical of American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, see the media as representing a pernicious conduit which allows state and military hegemonies to oppress and manipulate public opinion. The role of the media in reporting war and terrorism needs to be considered in terms of processes of cultural construction and representation. As we approach the anniversary of 9/11 and the ‘war on terror’, we need to understand that government foreign policy, public opinion and military action are all shaped through specific kinds of mediated discourse. Our role as media analysts is to expose these discourses in terms of those complex historical and cultural conditions which have served to generate a violence of this proportion.

10. The role of media and public opinion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piers Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Media

This chapter examines the relevance of media and public opinion to our understanding of foreign policy and international politics. It first considers whether public opinion influences foreign policy formulation, as argued by the pluralist model, or whether the public are politically impotent, as argued by the elite model. It then explores whether the media can influence foreign policy formulation, as argued by the pluralist model, or whether the media are fundamentally subservient to the foreign policy process, as argued by the elite model. It also integrates these competing arguments with theoretical frames used in the study of international relations: namely, realism, liberalism, and critical approaches (including constructivism and post-structuralism). The chapter concludes by discussing contemporary debates concerning organized persuasive communication and the ‘war on terror’.

scholarly journals Confrontational Argumentative Strategies in the Discourse of Foreign Policy Experts

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Samira Allani
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Strategic Maneuvering ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Dialectical Method ◽  
Argumentation Analysis ◽  
Argumentative Strategies ◽  
The Media

The aim of this study is to explore the discursive practices of foreign policy experts. While policy decisions involving war and peace keep people alarmed all over the globe, most of these decisions are shaped by policy experts who work on influencing public opinion through the media (Manheim, 2011). This study adopts a critical discursive stance and uses argumentation analysis to examine the ideological backdrop to the discourse of thirty opinion articles authored by American foreign policy experts in print media. Drawing on the Pragma-dialectical method of augmentation analysis (van Eemeren and Grootendorst, 2004), and more particularly on its notion of strategic maneuvering, the analysis examines the confrontational strategies used by this group of experts and attempts to determine the rhetorical goals pursued by these strategic maneuvers.

Chinese Public Opinion and the Interest Frontiers

2021 ◽  
pp. 144-169
Author(s):  
Andrea Ghiselli
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Media ◽  
Chinese Public ◽  
Western Democracies

Although it is not as decisive a factor as it is in Western democracies, the space for Chinese public opinion to influence foreign policy has grown over the years thanks to the population’s greater access to the Internet, the diversification of the media, and the simple fact that today’s Chinese leaders are not revolutionary heroes. While domestic public opinion cannot shape the country’s foreign policy on issues related to China’s “core interests”—the commanding role of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty—the situation is different when the discussion is less sensitive. The Chinese approach to North Africa and the Middle East is one of those topics. Hence, this chapter looks at how online Chinese public opinion influenced the domestic narrative on protecting the country’s overseas interests. It exposes a contested environment where the actions and the narrative put forward by policymakers were often under pressure as Chinese citizens favored a more muscular approach to defending the country’s overseas interests.

scholarly journals Foreign Policy of Provisional Priamur Government (1921—1922): Process of Formation and Basic Ideological Attitudes

2021 ◽  
pp. 431-449
Author(s):  
F. A. Popov ◽  
V. Z. Tsvetkov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Russian Territory ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Far Eastern ◽  
Ideological Attitudes ◽  
Newspaper Articles

The article is devoted to the foreign policy course of the anti-Bolshevik Provisional Priamurye Government, which controled Primorye in 1921—1922. The source base of the research was the journalism of the pro-government press (the newspapers “Slovo”, “Russian Territory”, “Bulletin of the Provisional Priamurye Government”) and archival materials. Particular attention is paid to the role of the media in substantiating the foreign policy of the Far Eastern non-socialists. It is shown that the official statements of the government (appeals, proclamations, interviews of officials) published in the press contained the foundations of the foreign policy doctrine of the White movement. In addition, it is indicated that anti-Bolshevik publicists regularly responded to foreign policy events and tried to form public opinion through newspaper articles. It is noted that the cornerstone of the program of the Provisional Priamurye Government was the thesis of the antagonism of “Russia” (personified in the white Primorye) and “Sovdepia” — RSFSR (together with the buffer Far Eastern Republic). As an example, illustrating the application of Provisional Priamurye Government ideological attitudes in practice, the sending of a delegation from the white Primorye to the Washington conference at the end of 1921 is given. The preceding press campaign, designed to substantiate the importance of the presence of the anti-Bolshevik delegation in Washington, is highlighted. 

Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.

scholarly journals Media Massa dalam Situasi Konflik: dari Bandwagon Effect Sampai Peace Narrative

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 503
Author(s):  
Aloysius Ranggabumi Nuswantoro
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Bandwagon Effect ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

Conflict occurs between two or more parties with different interests. Media related to conflict. The ability of the media to influence public opinion is the biggest element in the relationship between media with conflict. The media in this context can be a party that sparked the conflict but could also act as resolutor conflict. Media as a provocateur when play became an arm of one of the conflicting parties, while a conciliator conflict when showing neutrality and information that tends to peace (peace narrative). And theoretical studies should be conducted searches empirical facts on this subject, to clarify the position, the position and role of media in conflict situations. The results can also be used to see the extent to which the media contribute to creating conditions of public space and democratic deliberative. Against this, the choice to stick with journalism be the most appropriate choice for the media in an effort to maintain its position as an agent of democracy in society.

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