Communication and International Relations

Have you ever been involved in a 3-way telephone conversation? After several minutes, it can become challenging to determine who is addressing whom. This can also happen when watching, reading or listening to the daily news. Many times news stories that appear in the newspaper or on television are not meant for the general public. Governments, in particular, use the media to send ‘informal’ messages to each other or send messages that are aimed at the citizens of another country.

Your first thought might be, “Why don’t government leaders just address each other directly and avoid the media?” There are a few reasons why they prefer to use the media. For one, if countries have no diplomatic relations the media offer a convenient way to ‘talk’ to each other. Another reason is that the governments involved may not want an ‘official’ message sent that they will then be bound by in the future. Finally, if the goal of the senders is to get the messages out quickly, then technology such as email, fax machines and video cameras allow the media to receive news quickly and get it out almost instantaneously.

There are two kinds of messages that governments send via the media: non-verbal and verbal. According to Christer Jönsson and Karin Aggestam in their article Trends in Diplomatic Signalling, non-verbal messages can include “everything from personal gestures to the manipulation of military forces.” Verbal messages are the most common format. A recent example of this is a Seattle Times article where the headline read, “Bush tells Cuban people: “Shape your own destiny.” In this article, President Bush is basically calling on the Cuban people to overthrow their current government. He starts out by asking the people of Cuba to start a revolution similar to those that have changed central Europe and much of Latin America in the past. This message was also broadcast live to the Cuban people through U.S. government funded radio and television programs in their country. The President included a warning to the Cuban police and military “not to crack down on political dissidents,” and pledged to increase aid to ailing Cuban dictator, Fidel Castor’s opponents. The U.S. and Cuba have a long history of non-diplomatic relations. In 1960 President Eisenhower imposed a full economic embargo on Cuba, which is still in effect today, hoping to topple their economy. Despite these sanctions, the Cuban government has remained in place.

These media messages can also be sent from different organizations to governments or other military groups. An example of this is a recent article headlined, “Iraqi Kurds say they’re ready to fight Turkey.” In this article the Kurds say they feel threatened by what they view as aggressive military actions being taken by Turkey against them, such as mobilization of military planes in their area. Via the media the Kurds make it clear that, “They won’t hesitate to wage war on Turkish troops if an invasion comes.” Turkey has responded by continuing to mobilize troops in northern Iraq and flying military planes near the border town of Derishkit, to pressure the Kurdish rebels to leave.

The next time you hear a news report on television or read one in the newspaper and think to yourself, this doesn’t seem like it is directed at me…it probably isn’t.