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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
which are widely read by politicians, especially to stay abreast of
foreign policy issues.
coverage but also changes in government policy for the alleged effect
to be realized, how government elites are informed on issues and per-
ceive public opinion is critical. The importance of elite newspapers are
further amplified because local newspapers often syndicate their con-
tent and take their editorial cues, in terms of which issue to prioritize
and how to frame stories, from these larger papers.
The Internet through broadband delivery provides images and
promises to play an ever-increasing role in the future of any potential
CNN effects. However, its relatively low penetration in many Western
countries, even at the beginning of the twenty-first century, means
that it has been a relatively insignificant contributor to the CNN effect
over the 1990s—the period of focus for many CNN effect studies.
Also, the Internet has been problematic during crisis periods as servers
hosting Web sites often get congested with too many users attempting
to download the same information simultaneously. In the immediate
aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, for example, over
40 percent of American Internet users could not reach their Web site
of choice to access news, and most of them switched to television for
information. 17 16 As the CNN effect requires not only media
Interactive communications technologies, such as the telephone
and fax, have traditionally not played a role in the CNN effect for two
reasons. First, these media do not provide moving images (video),
which is an important component of the CNN effect. Second, their
individualistic nature does not allow a coherent message to reach a
mass audience. 18 This would seem to be a necessity for political
impact, which the CNN effect claims to be able to deliver through its
capacity to reach large audiences. For the purposes of this study,
therefore, it is assumed that the main agents for the CNN effect will
be television and newspapers.
What is Affected?
To gain a perspective on what is affected by the CNN effect, it is
important to review the earlier definitions again. Livingston suggests
that diplomacy and foreign policy are the areas of impact; Robinson
believes that domestic audiences and political elites are significant;
Nye suggests public opinion is the domain of importance. Although
Livingston and Nye characterize the CNN effect as an impact,
Robinson goes one step further and explains the phenomena in relation
to the responses it provokes.