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The CNN Effect: Missing the Point
By Ryan Crane
Clearly illustrated in the United States' entrance and exit of Somalia in 1992 and 1994 was the impact of the media in influencing the government's decisions. Arriving with humanitarian relief for starving Somalis, US forces were soon driven out not so much by increasing violence and civil unrest, but by public opinion. The rhetorical and visual explosion displayed by the media following the gruesome deaths of US soldiers revealed the power of the CNN effect to influence public support for the US presence in Somalia. Yet Peter Jakobsen's Journal of Peace Research article, "Focus on the CNN Effect Misses the Point," argues that there are other forces at work and that concerns over the power of the CNN Effect - or media's ability to influence policy -- may be exaggerated.
The Pioneer of Media Globalization - CNN
By Sean Kim
According to Wikipedia, as of December 2004, CNN is available in 88.2 million households in the U.S. More surprisingly, CNN International is available to 1.5 billion people in over 212 countries and territories and is continuing to grow via their website. Ironically, CNN is criticized as being too "liberal" and "anti-American" domestically, whereas it is criticized as being "pro-American" internationally. Will CNN ever be able to be considered neutral?
In his article, Jakobsen claims that the CNN Effect is applicable in rare instances and, more importantly, to limited effect in terms of policy making. Coverage of crises exists in three parts: pre-violence phase, violence phase, and post-violence phase. The media, as argued by Jakobsen, tend to focus their attention on the violence phase, ignoring the significance of the others. Neglecting the pre- and post- violence phases has two consequences. The first consequence concerns the distortion of the public's perception of conflict prone areas as 'hopelessly' unstable and chaotic. The related, second consequence is to limit support and funds solely toward short term emergency relief instead of long term rebuilding. Together, these consequences reveal the limitations of media coverage and the CNN Effect for establishing policies that promote enduring peace. Jakobsen explains that the CNN Effect is certainly a piece of the conflict management process, but the direct impact of the media is "negligible because coverage is limited to a small number of conflicts in the violence phase." In other words, the media play no role during the important pre- and post-violence phases when influencing government action to prevent future violence may, in fact, be more critical.