Politikon (Oct 2007)
Comparing portraits
Abstract
The charge given to a nation’s free press in informing the public of the world around them is immense and essential to a functioning democratic society. A free press functions optimally when it operates independent from the constraining influence of powerful entities within its government, thus, allowing it to fulfil its role as an independent check on government action. As events unfold overseas, papers fill various columns with what is deemed “newsworthy.” If and how these unfolding events are reported back to the public carries tremendous weight in helping to form public opinion that either supports, opposes, or remains indifferent to the policy that governments implement abroad. The boardrooms of a nation’s leading news outlets are filled with individuals who also possess the ability to significantly counter or reinforce government claims concerning the relevance, consequences, or threats encompassed within overseas developments; from their leading headlines splashed across page one to the very wording used to depict a particular event. These abilities, when combined, allow a nation’s media to exert substantial influence on constraining or expanding decision-making options for policymakers who wish to garner public support or avoid potential public backlash. This paper will examine how this influence was exercised within U.S. society and its three leading news sources (The New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune) in the reporting of four significant events: the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in apartheid South Africa, the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the Kwangju Massacre of 1980 in South Korea, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The goal of this paper is to recount the historic role the U.S. media has played in its telling of developing international events, and determine whether it has fulfilled its duty to inform the public with the impartiality it lays claim to or whether, at times, it simply mirrors the foreign policy agenda of a particular administration and operates in a manner as to ensure its successful implementation.
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