What Impact Do the Media and Public Opinion Have on American Foreign Policy - Essay Example

America is a democracy and this means that governments need votes from the population if they want to lead the country. One of the most important jobs that a government does is foreign policy. This is very important for the image of the country and it affects the way that people in America feel about themselves, their country, and their government.

The media have a role in providing information about what the government does, and this helps people to decide which party to vote for. Sometimes the media are not neutral, however, and this means that people can be influenced in one way or another. Newspapers often question what the government is doing, and they write about international affairs giving several different points of view. This encourages people to think about what is happening and contributes to general education. The existence of the media forces governments to explain what they are doing, and defend their actions.

Another role that the media has is to limit the powers of government in situations where they could take extreme actions. Presidents worry about what people will think of them, and this is a very good thing. O’Hefferman reports that “President Nixon said that the TV reporting of the Vietnam war was “probably the single most significant factor limiting our options there.” (O’Hefferman: 1991, p. 100) In the Iraq war also, television coverage of military funerals influenced people against the war, because it made the deaths of American soldiers more real to them.

The live images of bombs being dropped on Iraqi cities and pictures of injured children and weeping relatives make the human cost of war more visible. When people saw these images they were shocked and this caused political reactions against America’s policies in Iraq. Politicians can use the press in a positive way to make their views known to their own people and to allies and enemies abroad. Every time when Hilary Clinton goes abroad to do some foreign policy business, her office gives interviews and statements which are reported all over the world.