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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!cad!hijab
From: hijab@cad.UUCP (Raif Hijab)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Re: Air raid on Libya
Message-ID: <275@cad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-May-86 23:40:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: cad.275
Posted: Mon May  5 23:40:02 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 7-May-86 02:04:51 EDT
References: <720@ark.UUCP> <4600001@qtecmuc.UUCP> <152@suneast.uucp>
Organization: U. C. Berkeley CAD Group
Lines: 29
Summary: Impact of the Media

In article <152@suneast.uucp>, geoff@suneast.uucp (Geoff Arnold) writes:
> 
> When I first perceived the strength of the popular support for
> Reagan's action (media reported, but probably correctly so),
> my first reaction was "How the hell can I stay here? I could
> never feel a part of such an amoral society?".
> (My disgust reached a peak when I read George Will in the Boston
> Globe, saying how he could hardly feel regret about bombs hitting
> the French Embassy.)
> But then as a few voices of reason emerged, including several
> cautious but unambigous editorials in the Globe, I realized that
> I was not alone. And after all, if you look back, practically
> everything that Reagan has done in foreign policy has got initially
> enthusiastic popular support followed by a rapid cooling off.

At a recent public lecture, Professor Dorman of Cal State Sacramento 
presented a theory about the media triggering public response to
world events. He reported a study in which the response of Americans
to a certain international action or event, as measured by polls,
was preceded by as much as two weeks of intensive editorializing
and op-ed articles in the 'premier media' [e.g. the New York Times
and the Washington Post] which is then heavily reproduced in the
secondary media [small town papers, TV, etc.]. Invariably the
population at large followed the media consensus. The premier media
in turn takes its cue from the U.S. government, as handed down in
'backgrounders' and appeals to heed the 'national interest'. They
backtrack when a position becomes indefensible, and the American
public follows suit. (Of course, national issues, about the public
is better informed, are handled somewhat differently.)