Page 56 - The CNN Effect in Action - How the News Media Pushed the West toward War ini Kosovo

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DEMONSTRATING THE CNN EFFECT
occur all at once, but rather developed over a course of several
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In his second case study on the aftermath of the Sarajevo
months.”
marketplace massacre, media analysis is of an even shorter period of
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five days (February 5–9, 1994).
But Bosnian policy, as Robinson
suggested by quoting Anthony Lake, actually took three years of
compounding negative media images to move toward armed
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intervention.
Assessing the relationship between media and policy
over short periods can miss much of the subtlety of the policy-media
dynamic that might be discerned from a longer period of analysis.
While a policy with a high degree of political commitment may not
change with one unexpected and emotive event, repeated episodes
may weaken resolve, making the policy vulnerable to change with
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Also, reviewing any single event by itself can be misleading, as
time.
the dynamic between that policy and media coverage is often based on
a larger context, especially when consideration of intervention and war
is a possibility. According to Anthony Lake, policy change in Bosnia
was a function of an “accumulating effect” involving many repeated
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episodes of damaging media incidents that changed policy over time.
Finally, the policy-media interaction model is limited by the fact
that it does not account for the “effect” part of the CNN effect. In
other words, while the model assumes that policy uncertainty, sympa-
thetic framing, elite dissensus, and a significant degree of media cov-
erage before a policy change leads to a strong CNN effect, the model
does not provide a systematic mechanism to confirm whether policy
actually did change and whether it shifted due to media coverage. If
the model had a means by which to measure changes in government
policy, it could offer a fuller account of the CNN effect.
The Challenging CNN Effect Model—A
New Research Approach
The research methods employed in the literature provide many
important theoretical insights on the CNN effect. The interview-
based approach places emphasis on policy decision–makers and the
degree to which they attribute their decision-making to media influence.
The findings from this approach argue that the CNN effect is limited,
in general, but can occur when images from unexpected and emotive
events emerge. The media-based method highlights the importance
of media access and framing that challenges official policy. The quan-
titative approach points to the importance of sequence, suggesting
that media coverage should precede government activity for a CNN
effect. The policy-media interaction model reinforces the importance