The CNN Effect in the Face of Social Media - Coursework Example

The CNN Effect in the Face of Social Media: A Case of the Arab Spring Uprising Name Institution Course Module Instructor Date Table of Contents Introduction 2 Defining the CNN effect 3 Media coverage of the Arab spring uprising 4 Features of CNN effect 6 Source of news 6 Proximity framing 7 Influence on government 7 Factors promoting the CNN effect 8 Threats to the CNN effect 11 Conclusion 12 Introduction Under the influence of information and communication technology including internet, World Wide Web, mobile phone, tablets and computers, the citizenry has the potential to access and participate in news dissemination faster than using traditional media. Historically, television, radio and print media have been the mainstay of the media industry. These media have progressed from just reporting news as they happen to influencing developments in the society in various ways. One of the most cited influences the media has, and specifically television, on society and government is through the CNN effect. Having developed a few decades ago, the relevance of the CNN effect in the face of social media and the internet is under question in the face of social media. An empirical observation will reveal that a growing number of people and especially the youth and the technologically savvy are accessing news on the internet via new devices such as mobile phones, computers and laptops. Traditional media houses such as newspapers and televisions have upgraded to this online platform to increase their reach, speed of news dissemination and audience. With media houses playing a significant role on social media including Twitter and Facebook, the CNN effect associated with television is slowing fading away. The ability of 24-hours news coverage influencing society in huge ways as was witnessed before is changing. Focus on television through CNN effect to influence in society is rapidly shifting to the social media which is also on 24-hours. A case study of the Arab Spring Uprising demonstrates the power that social media has and its threat and relationship with media houses not ready to lose one of their key mainstays, the CNN effect. Defining the CNN effect The CNN concept as demonstrated by the Cold War era and other specific news coverage of global events does not earn it a standard definition. In fact, Gilboa (2005) prefers to call it a paradigm that has no clear definition and is open to being interpreted differently by different scholars. However, Robinson (1999) clearly defines the CNN effect as the presumed influence of news coverage by mainstream media and not just CNN on government’s foreign policy and humanitarian policies. For instance, the decision to withdraw US-Canadian forces from Somalia in 1992 was attributed to the wide coverage by CNN about the death of 18 soldiers in the rugged country (ibid). Subsequent events such as the Gulf war and post-cold war events made it clear that nonstop coverage of major news events was very likely to shape public opinion and even influence foreign policy. The media achieve this through strategic agenda setting, indexing and framing which are all key features of the CNN effect. Media coverage of the Arab spring uprising Mainstream media sources reported insistently about the Arab spring uprising and so did social media. A number of media houses including CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera provided countless hours of live coverage of the Arab spring uprising. To put this into perspective, a search at the New York Times website using the search term “Arab spring uprising” gives 1230 search results (nytimes.com, 2014). A similar search at the BBC website gives back over 1400 search results with 246 of them being radio and TV programs (bbc.com). At the CNN website, a similar search gives back 521 results with 9 videos attached (cnn.com 2014). With the public and state officers bombarded by such information, an opinion is likely to be formed depending on the angle taken by the media houses. With majority of the media houses covering activities of the protestors more against the brutality of government force, the public is likely to identify with the protestors Wolfsfeld et al., 2013). The same news articles and images were shared on social media by individuals and media houses. What was highlighted in the news among other issues was the role played by social media among the protestors. Their organization and networking was largely based on social media (Lotan, 2011). With so much attention given to the role of social media in the Arab spring uprising, does it mean that the mainstream media did not play any role? According to the classical perspective, the media had a role to play in shaping the opinion of the protestors towards their governments. The created opinion in this case did not influence foreign policy as predicted by CNN effect but rather influenced protests. “Classical journalism calls for accurate and impartial of renderings of a reality that exists independently of its telling, and which is external to the institutions of journalism. It is aimed at a heterogeneous citizenry that basically shares same public culture and citizens use journalism as a resource for participation in the politics and culture of society” (Zelizer, 2009, p. 147). Given the hostile environments in some of the countries that experienced the Arab spring, media houses such as CNN and Al Jazeera relied heavily on images and video footage taken and broadcasted by the public to understand and convey the same on their channels and through social media to the rest of the world. This is the linking that contemporary media has made with social media to stay relevant which the paper will address later. From a liberal point of view, journalism is supposed to report objectively with minimal influence by government or the powers that be. Under this approach, the press functions to protect the liberties of the state by informing the people and offering criticism to public policy where necessary (Zelizer, 2009). Consequently, the media functions as the public watchdog but does so in an objective manner (Fox 2013). However, for mainstream journalism to make full impact on society, it requires full democracy and absence of government manipulation which is not possible in many Arab countries (Hackett, 2013). It is for this reason that the misnomer liberal media has been used to refer to media in democratic countries especially in the US. However, it is the misunderstood meaning of ‘liberal media’ that has caused a negative perception towards liberalism in media (Lacy et al. 2011). Proponents of the theory however, support this approach by arguing that the effects of liberal media might be negative in the short term but they have positive in the long run as they seek to preserve a free and liberal society as guaranteed under democratic rules. In the wave of social media, the public and individual journalists have taken a greater role than the one played by contemporary media channels through social media. Consequently, the CNN effect, as was witnessed in the 20th century, is slowly waning. Many people have been made to believe that social media will take the place of contemporary media and more so television. However, a recent survey by Gallup showed that 55% of Americans obtain their news content from the television, 21% from the internet, 9% from print and 6% from radio (Saad, 2013). These data captures the number of TV viewers in America. However, data from social media sites indicate that there are over one billion users of social media. This gives social media a greater reach than television. Furthermore, social media users have a higher hand in controlling the content that they can see unlike in television. Features of CNN effect Source of news The CNN effect only exists if the news generators are different from the news consumers. During the cold war when the term CNN effect was coined, the idea of offering better detailed news coverage and constant updating of the public through breaking news and prime time news gave the media platforms a better control on the content. This is how mainstream media differentiates its product from social media in a competitive media world (Lacy, 2011). This is light of the fact that Twitter allows only 140 characters for tweets which is not sufficient to offer comprehensive news and information. As such, media houses use social media to drive traffic to their websites or even market their programming (Rubel 2012). This way, the mainstream media takes the initiative to be the source and gain acknowledgement of such. Individuals in social media however, do not necessarily have to indicate the origins of news or seek acknowledgment. Mainly, the sole purpose is to inform others without need for acknowledgement (Wolfsfeld, et al., 2013). Proximity framing Proximity framing, one of the key features of the CNN effect has enabled media houses to personalize news in a globalized world and even influence policy even further. In a globalized world, this has been achieved through personalization of news. Take for instance the news coverage of hunger, war and famine is some parts of the world especially Africa. Such images that incite empathy have been used to influence foreign policy and humanitarian aid to these regions (Hawkins 2011). While such images are created by the media, social media has further popularized such images and information from such zones. The mainstream media thus makes its fair share of influence on social media. This could mean that the CNN effect is likely to be transferred to the social media. Influence on government Influence on government action is another major feature of CNN effect. In the recent case of the Arab uprising, various governments in the Arab suffered the consequences by being overthrown. Egypt, Tunisia and Libya saw regime changes after the consistent protests against their respective governments. In Libya, President Muammar Gaddafi was accused of leading a dictatorial regime and violating human rights. He was accused of eliminating his political opponents and other opponents of his regime. Although he did not resign voluntarily he was overthrown by the rebel forces and executed. Similarly, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, of Tunisia was ousted by the protests which triggered similar protests in other countries. The amount of coverage protests in Egypt and Tunisia received had a lot of influence on other governments in the Arab countries through the CNN effect. The CCN effect had influence on other governments around the word. In Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco for instance, governments were in a haste to introduce reforms to lure the public against protests as was witnessed in other Arab countries namely Egypt and Egypt (Walker & Tucker, 2011). Bahrain was on the verge of the Arab spring protests but they did not pick up the momentum exhibited in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya. This CNN effect has had a lasting effect in the succeeding governments both in Tunisia and Egypt. Tunisia has seen the transition government led by Prime Minister Ali Larayedh resign earlier in January amid fears for other protests (Rayman 2014). Factors promoting the CNN effect Journalistic convergence gives relevance to the CNN effect in this age of social media. As aforementioned, the contemporary media has moved into social media to gain a share of the new platform. A study by Keith, Schwalbe and Silcock (2009) on the reporting of the US led invasion of Iraq showed high level convergence in in media platforms especially on images. The study observed that although there was statistically significant difference in the images used by print, television and social media, it is clear that the involvement of newspapers, and television in social media drew a very thin line in the platforms. In the Arab spring uprising, the CNN effect was minimal. The mainstream media as perceived to shape influence in the public played minimal role and was a later entrant into the scene. Why? The origins of the Arab spring uprising were calls for socio-political changes in the respective countries. Toxic corruption, unemployment, social repression, political deprivation and general frustrations made people to feel the need to protest against their respective governments (Allagui and Kuebler 2011). However, this claim is debatable as a different angle of foreign interference has been highlighted. According to Lotan et al. (2011) social media did not only play a role disseminating information/news but also played an organization and networking role. The mainstream media consequently attributed the Arab spring uprising especially in Tunisia, the originator of the uprising, and Egypt to social media. It was popularly named the “Facebook revolution” with claims that the uprisings originated in Facebook were echoed by mainstream media (Vargas, 2012). Allagui and Kuebler differ and say that social media only provided a platform for activism and networking. This marks a point of divergence between mainstream media and social media. Nonetheless, by the mainstream media giving coverage to the role of social media in the Arab uprising, they redistributed the content of social media in classical case of media convergence. The convergence of social media and mainstream media was also extensively reported in Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence which played a role in spreading hate speech (Sommerville 2011). The move to the social media platform by mainstream media is just one of the many examples of technological changes. For organizational managers and leaders, change is a constant element that must be adapted for those who want to remain relevant. In the same way media organizations have to embrace new technology such as the internet and mobile phones and adapt their products to the new market needs and lifestyle of the people (Fox 2013). The internet and World Wide Web, even before the rise of social media captured the first technological shift facing mainstream media. Today, all reputable media platforms have an online presence in form of website and blogs. The shift to the internet based platform was necessitated by increase use of the internet as an information source. In this age of information, the public is thirsty for instant news coverage. Instant messaging and live coverage of news by television all capture the time reference concept facing the media. For print media, there is usually several hours before they can broadcast their news (Keith, Schwalbe & Silcock (2009). To counter their shortage, major media houses have developed websites and social media platforms to keep up with the demand for instant news. The source of social media content is oftentimes said to be the people, but it is not always the case. Several studies on social media have revealed that a significant percentage of the social media content is derived from mainstream media (Nielsen, 2013). This means that the social media platform provides a forum for further discussion of the content on mainstream media such as television and news sharing. A survey by Nielsen data assessed the causal influence between broadcast TV and twitter. Statistical analysis on the data showed that a two way causal influence whereby TV programming influences twitter conversations on specific programming while twitter activity increased TV tune-ins to the mentioned programs. Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer at Nielsen said “Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of Tweets, and, conversely, a spike in Tweets can increase tune-in” (Nielsen, 2013). A further look at the activities of major media houses and more CNN reveals its ability to influence social media discussions can spread the CNN effect. For instance, the CNN tweet “An 8-year-old boy rescued 6 relatives from a fire, but died in an attempt to save his uncle” was retweeted over 8,800 times with another tweet on a Mandela image with an accompanying message was also retweeted over 8500 times (Mytop tweet, 2014). The mainstream media has enabled direct link with social media sites to stay afloat. This has been one of the ways that mainstream media houses have increased web traffic to their sites. A research has indicated that media sites increased their website traffic by 13% by just adding a Facebook ‘share’ button in their site (Rubel, 2012). While this might be viewed as value addition, it can also be said that the mainstream media is taking a multi-pronged approach in news distribution and impacting society (Lacy, et al 2011). Threats to the CNN effect The place of mainstream media in having the CNN effect is being eroded despite attempts to converge with social media. The mainstream media, whether from a classical or liberal perspective played its role. However, it impact in society and its ability to shape opinion and possibly culture as predicted by the CNN effect did not amount to much. Social media especially in Tunisia and Egypt offer conveyance of political and social messages generated by the same people who consumed it (Eltantawy & Wiest 2011). An important issue that can explain the increased influence and role of social media as opposed to mainstream media is the querying the issue of trust between the two options. Newman (2011) writes that social media to some extent eliminates the media bias from major media houses and filtering of information. A drawback of this is that some information on social media cannot be verified and might be false (Castillo et al., 2011). Case is in point is the rumored deaths of public figure such as Mandela and Eminem in the past. This means that trust is an issue in social media (Bruno, 2011). Reports have accused mainstream media of bias. In fact, trust towards mainstream media has waned over the years with increase in media platforms. The ability of the public to compare news from various channels and various platforms influences the level of trust. A Nielsen and Pew survey in the US on TV news viewership showed preference for cable TV news with a reported 25.3 minutes on average spent watching news while 12.3 minutes only were spent on watching local TV news with another spending 12.4 minutes watching network TV news (Olmstead et al. 2013). However, a larger percentage of 71% reported watching local TV news compared to 65% watching cable. Another portion of the US population (38%) reported to obtain news from the internet. However, only 90 seconds per day was dedicated to accessing news among the heavy internet users. It was also reported that the news overlap in most cases. This is because media channels report on television and broadcast the same in their websites. Conclusion It is clear that that mainstream media acknowledges the role and influence that social media has had on the public. For this reason, the mainstream media had suavely moved into social media to expand their influence and take a multipronged approach in news distribution. Consequently, it cannot be clearly stated that the CNN effect is dead per se. The CNN effect has transformed to include the internet and the social media platform in a more technologically savvy global society. There is increasing evidence that social media plays a more central role on public affairs and news distribution. From this, there is an emerging trend that social media is an extension of mainstream media as it offers further discussion and debates on headline news. Individuals can initiate these debates on topics and news featured in mainstream media. Individual journalists affiliated to key media houses also play an integral role influencing society. With government(s) also presented in social media by public figures and politicians, it is evident that the influence of the social media will also reach government and thereby the CNN effect will live on. References Allagui, I and Kuebler, J. 2011, The Arab Spring and the role of ICTs editorial introduction, International Journal of Communication, vol. 5, Feature, pp. 1435–1442 Bruno, N, 2011, Tweet first, verify later? How real-time information is changing the coverage of worldwide crisis events. Reuters institute for the study of Journalism report. Retrieved online from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Publications/fellows__papers/2010-2011/TWEET_FIRST_VERIFY_LATER.pdf Castillo, C, Mendoza, M & Pobletes, B. 2011, Information Credibility on Twitter. WWW 2011 Session: Information Credibility. 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