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CHAP TE R 2
Demonstrating the CNN Effect
Before the decision to set up safe-havens in northern Iraq after the
1991 Gulf War, John Major claimed to have been personally moved
by television images as he was putting on his socks one morning in his
flat, instigating him to begin the process of changing Western policy.
Before the 1992 Somalia intervention, George H.W. Bush claims to
have been disturbed by the images of starving children that he saw on
television along with Barbara Bush. Upon seeing the images, he
apparently telephoned Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, stating,
“Please come over to the White House. I—we—can’t watch this
anymore. You’ve got to do something.” 2 1
While the CNN effect is believed to have been an important factor
behind some important shifts in policy, most claims rely on unsub-
stantiated opinion or anecdotal evidence. Since the early 1990s, at
least four research approaches or models have attempted to qualify the
CNN effect in more sophisticated ways. These methods are referred
to as interview-based approaches, media-based approaches, quantita-
tive approaches, and the policy-media interaction model. This chapter
begins by reviewing these methods. It then develops a new model for
validating the CNN effect, using some of the key findings of these
four approaches within the context of the challenging CNN effect as
introduced in the previous chapter. This new model is bound by a
number of political factors that both shape and limit its manifestation.
These include the political culture, the international political context,
the political cost, and the level of political commitment by the gov-
ernment to the existing policy. Finally, the chapter concludes by exam-
ining two leading alternatives to the CNN effect thesis—the indexing
hypothesis and hegemonic theory—which challenge the underlying
assumption that media influences policy.