American journalism and international relations : foreign correspondence from the early republic to the digital era

American Journalism and International Relations argues that the American press' disengagement from world affairs has critical repercussions for American foreign policy. Giovanna Dell'Orto shows that discourses created, circulated, and maintained through the media mold opinions about the world and shape foreign policy parameters. This book is a history of U.S. foreign correspondence from the 1840s to the present, relying on more than 2,000 news articles and twenty major world events, from the 1848 European revolutions to the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Americans' perceptions of other nations, combined with pervasive and enduring understandings of the United States' role in global politics, act as constraints on policies. Dell'Orto finds that reductive media discourse (as seen during the 1967 War in the Middle East or Afghanistan in the 1980s) has a negative effect on policy, whereas correspondence grounded in events (such as during the Japanese attack on Shanghai in the 1930s or the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991) fosters effective leadership and realistic assessments. Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 1 Introduction 11 A Constructivist Perspective on IR, Communication, and Journalism 13 Constructing International Affairs 13 Distribution of Power and Ideas 14 Discourses and Foreign Policy Choices 16 Constructing Communication 19 Creating Meaning through Mass Communication 20 Media Discourses and Power 21 Media Discourses, Media Effects 23 News Media and Foreign Policy Interactions 24 Public Opinions Role 26 Constructing Foreign Correspondence 29 Mediating between National Discourses 29 Foreign Correspondence under Threat 30 Evaluating Foreign News Coverage 33 Studying the Construction of the World through Foreign Correspondence 35 A Note on Method: Finding Discourses of National Identity and Role 36 Conclusions 41 2 A New Country, A New Profession 44 Journalisms Professionalization: Nineteenth-Century Writers and Readers 45 From Pigeons to Eyewitnesses: Nineteenth-Century Foreign News 48 Getting Entangled: U.S. Foreign Relations in the Nineteenth Century 50 America Covers the World: Nineteenth-Century Media Discourses 53 Revolutions of 1848: Can Europe Handle Republicanism? 54 The 1853 Expedition: Opening Up Japan to Americas Trade and News 58 The Franco-Prussian War: Americas Interest in Europes Conflicts 62 The 1890s Cuban Revolution: Taking It on as a Reluctant World Power 66 The Boxers at Beijings Foreign Compound: American Intervention in Asia 70 Conclusions 74 3 America Takes Global Center Stage 77 The Power of the Press: Taking on the World, in the Publics Interest 78 Golden Age of Foreign Correspondence 81 Taking the Lead: American Policy Goes Global 84 America Covers the World: Media Discourses in the World Wars Era 87 The Mexican Revolution of 1910: Too Close for Comfort 88 The Russian Revolution of 1917: Rise of a Menace 92 Mussolinis Takeover: Are Timely Trains Worth a Dictatorship? 99 Japan Attacks Shanghai: Feeling Chinas Pain 105 The Spanish Civil War: The Correspondents’ Fight 110 Conclusions 116 4 The Media Are American in the American Century 119 The Bulldog: U.S. Journalism Tackles the Cold War 120 On All Fronts of the Cold War 123 From a Bipolar to a Unipolar World: Winning the Cold War 127 America Covers the World: Media Discourses in the Cold War 131 Castros Cuba: Still the Pearl of the Antilles 131 The 1967 War: Stunning Victory, Impossible Peace 137 Normalizing Relations with China: Communism, Capitalism and Peking Duck 143 Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan: A Pyrrhic Cold War Win 149 Soviet Union Collapses in 1991: Pax Americana, or a Scarier World? 155 Conclusions 163 5 A Web of Disentanglements 167 Clicks for All: U.S. Journalism Stumbles into the Twenty-First Century 169 Retrenching Foreign Correspondence 171 Redefining Power: Global Leadership in the Twenty-First Century? 175 America Covers the World: Post-Cold War Media Discourses 180 Bosnian War: New Era, Timeless Atrocities 181 Mandelas Election: The Rare African Good News 187 Mexicos 2000 Election: Change to Americas Neighbor 195 The Euro Debut: Can Europe Really Unite and Lead? 200 Mumbai Attacks: Terrorism and Business among the “Rest” 206 Conclusions 211 6 The Importance of Being There and Making People Care 214 Can the Market Save the Marketplace of Ideas? Possible Futures of Journalism 216 Staying Power: Possible Futures of Foreign Correspondence 225 Its What We’re Here For: U.S. News Leaders Protect Foreign Reporting 231 Doing More with Less 232 A Reporters Paper, or What Readers Pay For 233 Some Spinach on Your Plate (and, OK, Royal Weddings) 234 The Importance of Being There, or, Whatever Happened to Fukushima? 236 “Pretty Bloody Crucial”: International Correspondence Strategies Abroad 237 United Kingdom: The BBC, the Guardian and Public Service 238 France: Le Monde and the Value of News 240 China: China Daily and News as Power 240 Qatar: Al Jazeera English and Journalism Unbound 241 Conclusions 242 7 Conclusion 245 The Discursive Role of Media in International Relations 248 Constructed Identities and the Policy Range 248 A New Model of Media Effects 250 Foreign Correspondence and Democracy 251 Evolving Media Discourses of the World 253 Evolving Foreign Policy Paradigms 258 Foreign Correspondence and World Affairs 261 The Eyewitness 261 The Player 263 The Lookout 265 Conclusion: The Irreplaceable Mediator in Danger 265 Bibliography 269 Index 289 Language Arts & Disciplines,Journalism,Literary Collections,General,Political Science,International Relations,Social Science,Media Studies