When I began this blog, I played around with the question, "How does media affect foreign policy?" I quickly brushed this off as I thought that I would not be able to tackle such a question. Well, I feel sort of confident in giving an answer now........My answer would simply be, "How does foreign policy affect media?" Okay, I know. This is sort of confusing, but it really isn't. The answer is that they affect each other. It's like a big circle where what happens in the media affects the foreign policy decisions made and then those affect the media that is produced. Media is, in one way, the public thermometer of the general public. It reflects, as the late Marvin Gaye would say "What's Goin On". In response, policies made affect how the public will react, but there is a caveat. Most of the time, the general public will usually know as much as the media broadcasts about the policy decisions made. Yes, this is a giant entangled web, and not to mention the other actors involved that make up each of these larger groups. Within the media, you have news media and popular entertainment as well as the different ways each of these are broadcast such as television, radio, print, and internet. Within the realm of foreign policy, you have those actors who create it, which includes the different branches of government, those who the policy is directed to, and those who are affected by it. The web gets more tangled as we speak.
But what does all this mean for the future of the relationship that exists? As we are becoming more technologically dependable, the media has even more influence. Once upon a time, face to face interactions held some barring on our personal opinions whereas now our thoughts are influenced moreso by what we read on the latest blog or our computer's home page. Technology has also made face to face contact more difficult and less sought out as I can have an entire converstation with someone via text message. This process has conditioned us as humans to be more introverted and more reliant on our favorite digital devices. I believe the future contains more checks and balances by the general public as we have become more cognizant and dependant on the media around us. You can see this in the State Department's digital push or even President Obama's technology savvy administration full with Twitter and Facebook updates by the minute. As our government has become more transparent by the minute, the general public may feel a sense of entitlement to having their opinions considered.
