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Taken by Storm

The Media, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Gulf War

In the most comprehensive study of the media and foreign policy, twenty distinguished scholars and analysts explain the role played by the mass media and public opinion in the development of United States foreign policy in the Gulf War.

Tracing the flow of news, public opinion, and policy decisions from Sadam Hussein’s rise to power in 1979, to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, through the outbreak and conclusion of the war, the contributors look at how the media have become key players in the foreign policy process. They examine the pre-war media debate, news coverage during and after the war, how the news-gathering process shaped the content of the coverage, and the media’s effect on public opinion and decision makers. We see what goes on behind the scenes in the high tech world of political communication, and are confronted by troubling questions about the ways the government managed coverage of the war and captured journalists at their own news game.

Taken by Storm also examines more general patterns in post-Cold war journalism and foreign policy, particularly how contemporary journalistic practices determine whose voices and what views are heard in foreign policy coverage. At stake are the reactions of a vast media audience and the decision of government officials who see both the press and the public and key elements of the policy game.

The first book to fully integrate our understanding of the news business, public opinion, and government action, Taken by Storm transcends the limits of the Gulf War to illuminate the complex relationship between the media, the public, and U.S. foreign policy in the late twentieth century.

328 pages | xvii1, 308 p. | 6 x 9 | © 1994

American Politics and Political Economy Series

Media Studies

Political Science: American Government and Politics

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Media and Foreign Policy
A View from the Press
Marvin Kalb
A View from the Military
Thomas W. Kelly
A View from the Academy
Bernard C. Cohen
1: The News About Foreign Policy
W. Lance Bennett
2: The Press as Prologue: Media Coverage of Saddam’s Iraq, 1979-1990
Gladys Engel Lang, Kurt Lang
3: News and Historical Content: The Establishment Phase of the Persian Gulf Policy Debate
William A. Dorman, Steven Livingston.
4: The News before the Storm: The Iraq War Debate and the Limits to Media Independence
Robert M. Entman, Benjamin I. Page.
5: Domesticating a Crisis: Washington Newsbeats and Network News after the
Iraq Invasion of Kuwait
Timothy E. Cook
6: Strategic Public Diplomacy: Managing Kuwait’s Image During the Gulf
Conflict
Jarol B. Manheim
7: The Gulf War as Popular Culture and Television Drama
Daniel C. Hallin, Todd Gitlin.
8: News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion: A Study of
Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing
Shanto Iyengar, Adam Simon.
9: Elite Leadership of Mass Opinion: New Evidence from the Gulf War
John Zaller
10: Crisis, War, and Public Opinion: The Media and Public Support for the
President
Richard A. Brody
11: A Mutual Exploitation Model of Media Influence in U.S. Foreign Policy
Patrick O’Heffernan
12: Strategic Politicians, Public Opinion, and the Gulf Crisis
John Zaller
13: Just Deserts?
David L. Paletz
Appendix: Gulf Conflict Event Guide
Contributors
Index

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