The media-foreign policy relationship: Pakistan's media image and United States foreign policy

The relationship between the news media and foreign policy is complex and controversial. According to one school of thought, the media serve the interests of the dominant class, functioning as a "government propaganda machine". The key argument here is that the government sets the agenda on foreign policy issues as a result of a set of structural factors: (1) media project and protect the interests of ruling class, (2) media reliance on government sources, (3) corporate influence on media, (4) government's media management strategies, (5) government regulations, (6) secrecy or denial of access to information, (7) automatic attention to statements by president and administration officials. The contrary school of thought maintains that the news media are an independent force, serving as a critic/watchdog or fourth branch of government. According to this argument, the media have considerable power to influence government policies (both domestic and foreign) by criticizing the weakness of policies and influencing the policy agenda. This perspective is reflected in studies of the "CNN effect", which conclude that media play significant role in setting the public agenda and policy options.;Therefore, this study argues that the media is neither a powerful force in foreign policy nor is it managed by the government in what its editorials say about foreign policy. The convergence or divergence in the press and foreign policy relationship is issue-specific, with no consistent pattern. Foreign policy is a continuous process that involves continuous government-media interaction. Moreover media play a role as a "contributor" to the debate around foreign policy making..;In addition, this study proposes three useful heuristic models. First, a media-foreign policy treatment model; this model explains the relationship between policy posture and media coverage. Second, a media-foreign policy relationship model; this model elucidates the direction of media coverage and, third, a foreign country image portrayal model; this model describes how the U.S. and Canadian media frame Pakistan's image in their editorial coverage. These models refer to the tone of editorial contents that explain the level of agreement between the media and government on various policy issues. These models also provide theoretical guidance for future research on media and foreign policy relations.;This study consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 proposes three models related to the media and foreign policy relationship and provides definitions of various key concepts and sets out research questions of this study.;The thesis of this study is that the media's role is best seen as "contributor" in the policy making process: (1) the media provides useful information, suggestions and criticism that help in shaping policy; (2) policymakers need media to organize public support for their policy line; (3) media influence sometimes itself was the consequence of official actions; (4) media positions on foreign policy are taken more seriously by American policymakers after the fall of Soviet Union, because post cold war foreign policy decisions has no longer been taken in the context of the global containment of communism; (5) the new communication technologies have enabled media to cover event or crises in real time, putting more pressure on policymakers to respond to issues promptly for organizing public opinion in the favor of the government policy line. In addition, the globalization of communication flow and the advance of communication technologies have increased the interaction between media and policymakers. Thus, government and media influence each other in the policymaking process.;Chapter 2 focuses on U.S.-Pakistan relations from 1947 to 1998. It includes a brief analysis of the major issues in U.S.-Pakistan relations and also explains the inconsistent pattern of the U.S. foreign policy posture towards Pakistan. Chapter 3 provides a brief summary of literature related to the media - government relationship in foreign policy context.;The chapter 4 has two parts. The first part provides the theoretical framework for this study, examining framing, ownership, the Shoemaker-Reese hierarchical model of influence on media contents, the Propaganda model and the policy-media interaction model. The second part explains the methodology employed in this study. It provides the list of media frames or words on which all unsigned editorials are coded. Chapter 5 has three parts. The first part summarizes the major findings of the content analysis. The second part focuses on the White House press briefings; statements, proclamations, presidential speeches related the U.S. policy towards Pakistan and the treatment of policy coverage in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail on three important topics; (A) Pakistan as a factor in U.S.-Pakistan relations, (B) Pakistan-India rivalry: U.S. response and (C) Military regime in Pakistan: U.S. response, from 1998 to 2003. Third part provides the answers to research questions suggested by the statistical data analysis and qualitative reading of editorials. Chapter 6 examines the validity of the proposed models on the basis of qualitative and quantitative analysis and chapter 7 contains concluding remarks and establishes links between pervious studies and the findings of this study and also provides a list of hypotheses for future research agendas.