Impact of Media and Public Opinion on Foreign Policy Decisions

The Impact of media and public opinion  on foreign policy decisions

Media and public opinion have a significant influence on foreign policy decisions. The United States media and public lead in this concept as they immensely shape the country’s foreign policy compared to other nations. Initially, it was considered that public opinion had little influence over foreign policy, however, research findings have confirmed that, compared to other factors, it a key factor that influence the foreign policy (Soroka, 27). Thus, the public and media are important internal factors which influence foreign policy of any country.

Introduction

Foreign policy involves the systematic principles, actions and decisions taken by a particular nation to extend appreciation of mutual relations between the nation and other global countries. Its core objective is to promote and protect the crucial interests of a given state. The public forms the primary component of any democratic and economically thriving nation. Democracy advocates that public opinions should play a role in formulating policy upshots including a nation’s foreign policy. Public support in government-led decisions and actions are important in establishing political legitimacy to defend the country’s foreign policy (Gribble, et al, 128). However, there is a widespread incoherence in foreign policy views as most of the public fail to create and express their opinions on its outcome (Gaubatz, 536). According to Ali, Khalid and Khan, decision making in foreign policy occurs in a framework partly occasioned by the media. In this regard, mass media participates in almost all stages of formulating a foreign policy. Political leadership has the mandate to establish a country’s foreign policy. Nonetheless, the leadership relies much on the media to learn on the events in the international arena. Eventually, this aspect sets the process of foreign policy in motion. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between the public opinion, media and the foreign policy.

Comparative Analysis of Internal factors that Influence Foreign Policy including the Media and Public Opinion

Not only the public opinion and media form the internal factors that influence foreign policy but also others such as technology, size of the nation’s territory, social structure and national capacity (Ali, Khalid & Khan). Although state organs design the foreign policy, it is directed by the circumstances and options within the nation (Petri, 80). All the internal factors are equally important in shaping a country’s foreign policy, however, public opinion and the media are more objective illustrating the unique characteristics of the given nation. Public opinion offers a quantitative measure of a state’s population and available resources highly valuable to the citizens. Apparently, the public opinion is essentially significant in modelling foreign policy. The media serves as a monitoring and analytical tool on not only international but also national matters. The media through a broad though succinct coverage communicate and magnify different variations in the opinion of the elite in regard to foreign policy (Jentleson & Britton, 399). This aspect gives the public an opportunity to synthesize clear information that guides their opinion.

The public opinion is not restricted in the country of concern but also on the global nations. Expectations on various relative benefits and costs of foreign policy decisions are also dependent on the world public opinion (Gaubatz, 541). Citizens always have varying interests spanning across borders (Petri, 81). For instance, Jews opinion matter a lot in the U.S foreign policy and decision making restricting some actions in the Middle East. Public opinion represents the population voice which more often than not either obstructs or dictates foreign policy. The media creates an extensive avenue through which a foreign policy manoeuvres or is restricted. Knowledge of international events is an important aspect in creating a foreign policy. The media relays this significant information to other actors in the foreign policy formulation process. The media has the ability to reach deeper in certain situations within a given state that could prove challenging to reach by the diplomatic missions. As such, the media offers a link between highly classified information and the stakeholders in the decision making process. It breaks down, poor diplomatic services and unnecessary bureaucracy that inhibits access to crucial data required in the designing the foreign policy (82).

Most of the main decision makers in foreign policy, by virtue of their leadership positions they exercise delegated authority subject to public approval. Presidents, prime ministers and chancellors not only exercise their intellectual, character and personal qualities in decision making but must also put into consideration the important public opinion before making any conclusion. Public experience and beliefs can cause a major obstacle to foreign policy. Precedential actions taken previously could have had adverse effects on the public and as such the ideas and opinion by the public would be important before formulating a policy that could lead to the same circumstances (Petri, 83). For instance Iraq invasion in 2003 has had far reaching consequences to the Americans as a result of a foreign policy mostly see to have been flawed or rushed in its formulation stages. Although some Congressmen such as James Marshall opined that the media was creating a weak picture of the policy, (Baum & Potter, 40), it was only offering the public clear information on the events in the international arena and their impact to the American soil. However, the media coverage of the occurrences in Iraq and other terrorist cells profoundly shaped the public opinion on the war. In this case it can be concluded that, the media and the public cut across each other in the pursuit of an informed nation and proper leadership and decision making.

Role of the Media in Formulation of the U.S Foreign Policy

The media plays a crucial role in telecasting, publishing and broadcasting the foreign policy of the United States. Media contribution in policy formulation is overly seen in the dissemination of factual data to the citizens. It publishes various articles on current national and international events which allow the public to understand development and analysis of the government policy related to foreign affairs (Ali, Khalid & Khan). The media provides the primary conduit between the public and the policy makers. Actually, policy makers follow reports from the media on public opinion in regard to certain aspects of U.S foreign policy. The same media relays back the policy makers’ decisions and actions to the public (Soroka, 28). Observing the important role media plays in shaping the opinion of the political leaders, (29), Soroka says that “media may be not successful in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” In this regard, the media is a key proponent of issues of concern that require utmost attention from policy makers.

On a different note, Ali, Khalid and Khan suggest that there is a conflict on the real impact of the media to foreign policy. However, journalists, scholars and policy makers support the assertion that the media really influences the process of formulating foreign policy. Some pundits augment that the media open the formulation process to less informed public or take the foreign policy off the hands of the professional elite or it serves the interest of the elite. Petri (84) says that the media exerts considerable pressure that influences decision making on foreign policy. Arguably, the media sees circumstances like those in the international community but caused by the foreign policy action and decisions of either other states, of their own country, specific group such as cults or terrorists or of international organizations in a special way. The media conducts an in-depth analysis not only on the ultimate outcome of the policy but also on the situations that led to its formulation. In this case, it harries policymakers into acting on a particular crisis; creating inducements to react while at the same time, raising the risk of not taking a concrete action.

The media may consider the foreign policy too intransigent, aggressive or lenient to the targeted nation or group of states (Petri, 86). However, accurate analysis of the situation can only be driven by an apt access to important information. According to Baum and Potter (42) the market place of the foreign policy is driven by distribution of the primary market commodity; that is information. Although information typically favours leaders and the decision makers, dissemination of the same to the public and relay of the feedback to the policy makers is essential. The media plays the role, providing the medium of communication, monitoring and analysis of the information from both sides. Wiarda and Skelley (50) comment that ideas and the principles of a country’s political culture are translated into a policy through the media. However, the media can be used to promote skewed foreign policy though manipulating the information being passed to the public. Although this measure is taken to advance the public support for the reigning policy it may have adverse casualties. During the World War I, the media played a key role in supporting the U.S foreign policy against its enemies. Information was controlled through the Creel Committee to manipulate it. Journalists were involved in encouraging public patriotism and hatred for esteemed enemies, support military, Wilson administration and the diplomatic policy (Ali, Khalid & Khan). Wiarda and Skelley (51) observe that the media could delay formulation of a foreign policy through feeding less informed interest groups with critical information. The groups clash on their interests and as such forces the government to seek ways of reconciling the varying interests to avoid hurting either group. This process is time consuming and as such derails the establishment of the policy.

During the war in Iraq, the media played a key role in disseminating information and creating the public opinion. It was important for the Bush Administration to gain the support of the American people and as such it needed the media to propagate its mission. This is because the public favoured non-military intervention (Jentleson & Britton, 415). However, the government needed a tool to create misconception on the reality that Saddam Hussein was dangerous and he harboured weapons of mass destruction. Actually, the public does not just develop delusions in a vacuum (Kull, Ramsay & Lewis, 570). The Bush administration released information to the public though with implications. The media played a key role in transmitting the information, critical analysis of the same and creation of news that the public could not desist paying attention to. In such a way, the media influenced public opinion and by extension promoted the Bush foreign policy in Iraq. It managed to create a misconception linking the Iraq to Al-Qaida (571) and weapons of mass destruction (572).

Role of the Public Opinion in Formulation of the U.S Foreign Policy

Policy makers decide on the actions to take as a response to public opinion as passed to them through the media (Soroka, 28). It is clear that once public opinion is communicated to the leaders it form the basis of their consultations on various matters of policy important to the citizens. This way, the public opinion plays a key role in agenda-setting among the policy makers (Foyle, 274). The public opinion more often than not drives foreign policy though to some extent it creates an impediment to decision making as such restricting the various activities in the process of establishing a concrete foreign policy. Some UK citizens were against the war at Iraq however , the majority felt the need for invasion to protect UK from the impact of terrorism(Gribble, et al, 135) .However, despite the imminent barrier imposed by the public opinion to whose favour either in the international realm or within the country, the policy is being made for cannot be ignored. Therefore, public opinion even from third nations should be significantly considered as it may either hinder or support the objective of the foreign policy. For instance, involvement of the international community Herzegovina and Bosnia and eventually in Kosovo was influenced largely by the global public opinion especially Western Europe and United States. On the other hand, the Serbian public opinion held hostage their country’s foreign policy over Kosovo.

The public exemplifies a complex yet well-developed relationship of the people to different major trends and processes in the international community and the foreign policy. In shaping the foreign policy, Petri (86) observes that “informed public opinion includes the opinions and assessments of those persons who are not directly involved in foreign policy decision-making, but are experts in foreign policy problems in general terms or in specific foreign policy issues.” In other words, public opinion is all inclusive and comprises of expert views from intellectual elite on matters that concern foreign policy. The experts come from a pool of researchers, university academicians, retired diplomats, eminent journalists as well as present and retired parliamentarians. However, experts are supposed to offer a market place of ideas that shapes public opinion. In the wake of the war against Iraq, the market place ideas failed to convince Americans the war was flawed and too costly to the American taxpayers. The Bush administrations used “2002-03 foreign policy” to lure the public into supporting the Iraq invasion (Kaufmann, 5). Rather than offering factual information some of the pundits engaged in the propagation of the over exaggerated war justification. For instance Kenneth Pollack used his book to convince liberals and moderates who would not have bored to the insinuations from the Bush administration (11).

Guraziu (4), augments that the former Secretary of State offered a clear assertion on the influence of public opinion to the formulation of foreign policy in that “statespersons are constrained by two sets of influences: politics, power, and actions of other nations; and domestic constraints, ranging from public opinion to the attitudes of the government and bureaucracy.” Public opinion is important in identification of various alternatives and choices in the process of formulating a foreign policy. In the Iraq invasion, the public sided with those supporting the resolution for an attack and this gave the government a clear choice (Foyle, 282).The fact that, policy making process is a rational undertaking, policy makers are constrained to take actions that would produce the best results in the realm of the public opinion. In this case, it is evident that the public opinion played a key role in determining the outcome of the decision making. In fact, the extensive public support for the need to initiate a military feat against Iraq moulded the Bush administration policy and support from the Congress (289). However, the Bush administration ignored world public opinion that sought some time before U.S attacks Iraq. Majority of the world favoured time to create a solid international support. PIPA/KN polls illustrated that the Americans misconceived the opinion of the world public on the U.S decision to invade Iraq. Right before and after the war, U.S propagated that it was fight against terrorism; however, the Muslim public opinion presents it as a war against their religion (Kull, Ramsay & Lewis, 573).

Conclusion

Public opinion and the media are important factors in shaping a country’s foreign policy. Initially, public and the media were not considered as key players in the formulation process of the foreign policy. However, currently, they take part in almost all the stages of the process. Modern foreign policy involves an array of systematic values, decision and actions taken by a country to protect and promote its interests and relations with another nation or a group of states. Democracy allows the public to participate in policy formulation. In this undertaking, the media is essential to relay crucial information between policy makers and the public. It not only passes information but also influences public opinion and the decision of the leaders. In the U.S the public opinion and the media impact the outcome of a particular foreign policy. The media exercises its effect through broadcasting, telecasting and publishing articles on national and international events. On the other hand public opinion offers alternatives and choices provided by the citizens in regard to the projected policy. Thus, compared to other factors, the media and public opinion have a significant influence on foreign policy decisions.

Works Cited

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