MEDIA AND INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS

Faiza Mir
Department of I.R
University of Baluchistan, Quetta
 TOPIC 8 (II):
MEDIA & NEW FORMS OF IDEOLOGIES (II)

War on Terror
Extremism
Fundamentalism
Promotion of Global Culture
 TERRORISM
Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and
highly destructive phenomenon in recent years.
The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has
risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009,with a
total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed between
September 11, 2001 and May 2011. According
to the government of Pakistan, the direct and
indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000–
2010 total $68 billion
 MEDIA AND FOREIGN POLICY

Within democratic states, the media is supposed to

facilitate a full and open debate on important issues
within the public sphere. The news media includes:
 Television news & current affairs programming
 Newspapers
 On-line media (a little bit outside traditional model)
Acts as watchdog, agenda-setter, news index, etc.

Almost more propaganda rather than news

 OVERVIEW
Almost 30 years ago, Noam Chomsky, a famous
intellectual, wrote about the manipulation
strategies the media uses.
 It’s been quite some time since then, and now
we have things like the internet, Twitter, and
Facebook, so the media has many more ways
to influence us. Unfortunately, the influence is not
always positive.
 NEW TECHNOLOGY AND THE ‘WAR ON
TERROR’
 Have seen rise in new forms of communication technology: Internet and
global media (CNN & Al-Jazeera)
 We would expect that this would make states unable to suppress ‘bad
news’.
 Critical question: whether peoples of the world have become any more,
or any less, informed about global affairs.
 THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’

For liberals, the appearance of new issues, such as

the ‘war on terror’, challenge their claims for the
existence of a more adversarial and independent
post-Cold War media
For realist and critical approaches, the ‘war on
terror’ and its impact upon media autonomy and
public perception of global affairs, confirms
subservience of both to broader political and
economic forces
 WAR ON TERROR

 Creating a diversion is the media’s

favorite strategy. Important
information isn’t noticed amongst
a huge number of smaller stories.
The internet didn’t solve this problem:
we constantly switch our attention
to funny pictures and jokes. The only
difference is that today we at least
have a choice: you can easily filter
the information you want to receive
to avoid unimportant information.
 EXTREMISM

 Sometimes an imaginary
or exaggerated problem causes very
serious reactions from society. In 2016,
NASA published an article saying that
if astrology were scientific, the zodiac
signs would change their positions. For
example, Virgo would become
Leo. Cosmopolitan presented this
as a scientific discovery and claimed
that 80% of people would have
to change their zodiac sign. The article
spread so fast that NASA had to publish
a retraction.
 FUNDAMENTALISM

 In order to form a certain opinion, you

can publish materials on the topic
gradually. This strategy is used to form
an image of a person, a product,
or an event. For example, in the media
of different countries, only certain food
brands are mentioned. The brightest
example of using the media for
promotion was probably
the popularization of smoking in the m
iddle of the 20th century
.
 PROMOTION OF GLOBAL CULTURE

 To convince people to make hard

or unpopular decisions, the
media can present them
as "painful, but absolutely
necessary." And then they tell
people that these decisions need
to be made tomorrow, not today.
Future sacrifices are easier than
ones you need to make today.
Examples include independence
referendums or dictatorships
in developing countries, based
on propaganda and
authoritarianism.
 CONCLUSION

 Media has important influence on public opinion and FP

 Media can be seen as democratic force holding state accountable (pluralist) or
mouth piece for the state, mobilizing the public to its cause (elite)
 New technology has potential to make it harder to states to control message, but
verdict still out
 It’s impossible to avoid media, but by understanding it you can have a balanced
view
 Positive coverage can increase chances for a policy’s acceptance, while negative
coverage forces the policy makers to reshape their opinions
 Scandalous/high-interest topics often emphasized over duller/less exciting but
more important topics

The bottom line:

Cycle: Political action, media coverage, amended political action
???