Page 200 - The CNN Effect in Action - How the News Media Pushed the West toward War ini Kosovo

1403975191ts09.qxd 19-2-07 05:09 PM Page 165
165
CONCLUSION
Albright found that her policy proposal, a formula that would have
been considered outrageous by her NSC colleagues just four days
before, faced little resistance.
What was most striking about these three incidents and the policy
shifts that followed them was their relative insignificance to the over-
all death and destruction in the Kosovo civil war. As mentioned ear-
lier, these incidents accounted for less than 8 percent of deaths and
3 percent of villages destroyed over the period under review. Yet they
accounted for 48 percent of media coverage and 38 percent of
government actions according to the metrics used in this book.
Clearly, the media images and framing of these incidents made events
that might otherwise be relatively ordinary in the context of such a
conflict stand out and be extraordinary in their consequences for
policy influence.
Despite the role of the CNN effect as an influencing variable on
policy, other factors and drivers were also certainly important. There
can be no doubt that the political and regional issues that Alexander
Vershbow and others have mentioned were significant. In fact, the
findings of this book’s case study show that the CNN effect was only
one factor pressuring policy toward intervention. Other variables
relating to the actual fighting in Kosovo and its consequences on civil-
ians also contributed. These other drivers, which garnered limited or
no media coverage, were the basis for more traditional government-
driven actions that, in some cases, were followed by media coverage.
One example of this occurred in late May to mid-June 1998. At the
beginning of this period, Yugoslav forces that had shown restraint
over the previous two months to appease the West found the KLA
gaining strength and taking control of territory in Kosovo, particu-
larly around the Albanian border that had become a supply line for
arms. In response, FRY forces launched a counteroffensive to retake
KLA positions. This campaign garnered only scant media coverage,
however, and led to a strong government reaction involving the NATO
air exercise Operation Determined Falcon on the borders of Kosovo.
This NATO action received significant media coverage and was a clear
example of the media taking its cue from official government action.
In the literature on the Kosovo civil war, and especially the West’s
road to intervention, little is mentioned regarding the CNN effect in
2
the shifting of policy toward war. The literature that deals with the
role of the media focused largely on its propagandist character after
the decision to intervene and during the NATO air campaign. This lit-
erature is largely critical, arguing that the media failed to question
3
government policy, being too supportive and compliant. Of the three