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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
agents such as social movements, or more rapidly through
catastrophic experiences and crises. The 1941 bombing of Pearl
Harbor and the 9/11 attacks on the United States, it can be argued,
played a significant role in shifting America’s political culture in rela-
tion to the international community away from isolationism and
toward engagement in a relatively short period.
Political culture is dialectical at times and subject to competing
values that can tug a political community in different directions. In
relation to a third-party intervention, the struggle between the values
of order and justice serve as a good example, in this regard. Whereas
a conflict between one group of insurgents and their government
might be viewed by a third party as an illegitimate set of terrorist acts,
another could see it as a legitimate fight for justice against repression.
What makes one insurgent a terrorist and another a freedom fighter
certainly has to do with their tactics and the circumstances of their
particular conflict, but it cannot be divorced from the relationship of
different cultures and their historic bonds and common experiences.
More often than not, political communities will support other
political communities with similar values and historical experiences.
While Hamas might be more indiscriminate and brutal in its killings
than the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the reasons why the
United States supports Israel and bombed Serbia (in tacit alliance
with the KLA) go much deeper than the tactics employed by the
two groups.
As mentioned earlier, when media images and accompanying fram-
ing expose an official policy at odds with political culture, journalists
have opportunities to interpret issues in ways that challenge official
policy, creating pressure on decision-makers to change policy. If polit-
ical culture is at odds with official policy, it will also likely create elite
political dissensus that provides additional fodder to media critique.
Culture, however, is more often a limiting factor on the possibility of
a CNN effect, setting boundaries on what constitutes legitimate chal-
lenge to official policy. According to Entman, government framing
can be congruent, ambiguous, or incongruent with political culture. 79
The more congruent the government framing is with its political cul-
ture, the better its chances of selling its policy: “The most inherently
powerful frames are those fully congruent with schemas habitually
used by most members of society.” 80 When government policy is cul-
turally congruent, the media are severely limited in reporting chal-
lenging framing and risk reprimand and intense public pressure for
stepping outside the boundaries of legitimate critique. For example,
after September 11, 2001 and during the 2003 Iraq War, a number of