by W. Lance Bennett (Editor), David L. Paletz (Editor)



Book Description

In the most comprehensive study of the media and foreign policy, twenty
distinguished scholars and analysts explain the role played by the mass
media and public opinion in the development of United States foreign
policy in the Gulf War.

Tracing the flow of news, public opinion, and policy decisions from Sadam
Hussein's rise to power in 1979, to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, through
the outbreak and conclusion of the war, the contributors look at how the
media have become key players in the foreign policy process. They examine
the pre-war media debate, news coverage during and after the war, how the
news-gathering process shaped the content of the coverage, and the media's
effect on public opinion and decision makers. We see what goes on behind
the scenes in the high tech world of political communication, and are
confronted by troubling questions about the ways the government managed
coverage of the war and captured journalists at their own news game.

Taken by Storm also examines more general patterns in post-Cold war
journalism and foreign policy, particularly how contemporary journalistic
practices determine whose voices and what views are heard in foreign
policy coverage. At stake are the reactions of a vast media audience and
the decision of government officials who see both the press and the public
and key elements of the policy game.

The first book to fully integrate our understanding of the news business,
public opinion, and government action, Taken by Storm transcends the
limits of the Gulf War to illuminate the complex relationship between the
media, the public, and U.S. foreign policy in the late twentieth century.

Product Details

Paperback: 328 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (October 3, 1994)
ISBN: 0226042596