Factor Analysis Of The News Media In The U.s. Foreign Policy Decision-making

It is these core actors such as the President, the Congress and the state security organizations that make and implement U.S. foreign policy, but some non-governmental organizations like interest groups, think- tank and news media also play an important role in this process. U.S. news media, the most advanced around the world, functions as a watchdog over government, legal and judicial systems. What's more, it has a crucial influence on U.S. foreign policy decision. With the development of communication technology, the increasing influence of public opinion and American nationalism, this influence is becoming more and more obvious. Based on the foreign policy analysis theory, the paper focuses on how news media affecting U.S. foreign policy decision. It contains the following four parts.The first part illustrates the concepts involved in this paper. It compares the concepts of foreign policy and diplomatic policy; defines the concept of foreign policy decision. Furthermore, it gives a brief introduction to schools of foreign policy analysis theory and U.S. foreign policy decision-making mechanism. The second part gives a brief account of U.S. news media including the history and current situations about U.S. news media and its characteristics.The third part explores the role of news media in shaping U.S. foreign policy. First, it analyzes the relations between U.S. media and government; second, it uses case analysis to illustrate how media impacts foreign policy decision; third, how media affects the implementation of U.S. foreign policy. As an important source of information, U.S. media influences the country's foreign policy decision. This is because the focus of the media has a great impact on interest groups, public opinion as well as other social factors.The forth part summarizes factors by means of which U.S. news media influences foreign policy decision, such as: communication technology, news report, public opinion, nationalism, the President, conservative thoughts, etc. The paper ends with analysis on the trend how media influences foreign policy decision, and what kind of role it is going to play on Sino-U.S. relations and what measures China should take to counteract the negative influences bringing by U.S. news media.