What are the CNN and Aljazeera effects? Are they still pertinent today?
The CNN effect was solely west-centric which interpreted issues from the western stances. They couldnt be completely unbiased. Often they tended to view Arab people as terrorist which Arab people found derogatory. So, there was a swelling demand to create a news media in order to see things impartially. So, the Al-Jazeera effect came across to smash western hegemony.
Fariha Maimuna
Whoever controls the media, controls the mind― Jim Morrison
At present were living in a new media age. Samuel Huntingtons clash of civilization theory shows that how media forces are influencing the contemporary global political arena. The speed of the internet and the spread of information have enabled to create a process in which power over information carries much more stature. News media are one of the most substantial components in todays world.
Well see in this article, whether news media can expedite foreign policymaking through their coverage and, well try to uncover the answer through the understandings of the CNN effect and the Al-Jazeera effect.
The medias fundamental role in the political arena and government foreign policymaking has always been undeniable. Media generates agenda setting, accelerant, and impediment effects on government and by establishing these effects, they impel governments to take a foreign policy decision.
By restoring to accelerant effect, the real-time news media act as a pressing factor and curtails the time for policymakers to make a foreign policy decision forthwith. Because of accelerant effect, Governments take decision hastily which often doesnt bring any good ultimately. Impediment effect infers that media can stymie particular government foreign policy decisions by thwarting public backing. For instance, when a government takes any foreign policy decision and media find it contradictory to the nations interest, they broadcast news against that decision and strive to obtain public support. And thirdly, the agenda setting effect implies that when media frequently cover particular news, people take the news seriously, and thereby it shapes peoples opinion and policymakers are bound to take instantaneous action based on public reaction.
During the Second World War period, realism dominated the world. At that time, media had limited role to play in government foreign policymaking processes. But this phenomenon started to veer around when the CNN effect and Al-Jazeera effect embarked in the post-cold war epoch.
CNN effect is referred to as the advent of western media and real-time news coverage. CNN is the very first news network that delivered 24 hours news. Primarily, it came to the limelight during the Persian Gulf War era in 1990-1991. It was exclusively a televised war. When America invaded Iraq, CNN broadcasted news from the front line and enabled international society to observe whats going on there and thus shaped public perception of the war.
Later, because of the CNN news coverage, America intervened in Somalia (1992), Bosnia (1995), and Cosovo (1999). America intervened in those areas in the name of humanitarian crisis. Additionally, in Iraq, because of the media coverage of the Kurdish crisis, the United Nations stepped in.
The CNN effect points out that when media cover any crisis situation, it boosts public opinion to do something about the occurrence and which in turn compel policy-makers to formulate a particular foreign policy. The CNN effect not only entails CNN, but at the same time all real-time news media like SkyNews, BBC world, to name but a few.
We can understand the importance of the CNN effect by giving the example of Sudan crisis. Sudan encountered a similar humanitarian crisis like Somalia but American policymakers didnt take any action just because news media didnt cover the issue. CNN effect was so influential that former UN secretary-general Boutros Ghali labeled CNN as 16th member of the Security Council.
However, the CNN effect was solely west-centric which interpreted issues from the western stances. They couldnt be completely unbiased. Often they tended to view Arab people as terrorist which Arab people found derogatory. So, there was a swelling demand to create a news media in order to see things impartially.
So, the Al-Jazeera effect came across to smash western hegemony as well as to analyze political predicaments from a different perspective. Al Jazeera effect infers the emergence of new media in world politics and they emerged as the mouthpieces of Middle East countries. Al-Jazeera became familiar particularly during the Palestine Intifada in 2000. Later, in 2005 cedar revolution in Lebanon took place because of Al-Jazeera media coverage. As it had huge news coverage, some Arab leaders policies altered significantly. Policymakers of Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain authorized media liberalization. Even Egypt created a media-free zone. Together with, in Afghanistan, former President Ashraf Ghani established the Access to information law which allowed Afghan citizens the rights of getting Information. It was part of a media demand law.
During the Arab spring, both CNN and Al-Jazeera played important roles to persuade government policies considerably.
But these media have weathered several challenges. First of all, questions occur as to whether media are actually unrestricted or they are mere policymakers manipulating tool? Do they still have freedom today?
We can get the answer with the help of the manufacturing concept, which portrays that governments and policymakers can influence the outcomes of news media. Especially after the 9/11 era, we saw the existence of manufacturing concept in Americas war on terror policy when they invaded in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. America wanted to justify their intervention with the help of media coverage. In those cases, media exclusively acted as the governments manipulated tool.
Nowadays most news media act either based on manufacturing concept or they exert no role at all. For instance, Chinese government propaganda about COVID-19 and western islamophobic propaganda shows the implementation of manufacturing concept and the USs troops withdrawal from Afghanistan portrays that media dont play any effective role in governments policymaking decision. Although most media stated the possible risks of troops withdrawal from Afghanistan but ultimately their news coverage couldnt resist the Biden administration from leaving the country.
Last but not the least, in this globalized world, with the advent of new media such as various social media sites, news media nowadays are not as influential as before. Now information can be spread within a second through various social sites without any hassle. Policymakers are more intended to use social media sites than depending on news media to accomplish their desired goals. However, this is not always the case though. Still a number of news media are independent to choose any news they want to publish and they even can exert influence on government policymaking agendas. They can still shape public opinion on something which may propel policymakers to take any crucial foreign policy decision in a flash.
The writer is a student of Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka
