PPP-305: Foreign Policy, the News and American Public Opinion Fall 2005

Transcription

1 9/8/2005 2:20 PM PPP-305: Foreign Policy, the News and American Public Opinion Fall 2005 Dr. Maxine Isaacs 252 Taubman (Shorenstein Center) 617/ Class: Tu-Th 1:00-2:30 pm Littauer 140 Faculty Assistant: Ayres Heller, , Room T157 Course Assistants: Mark Linton Edil Baddiri OBJECTIVES OF THIS COURSE Upon completion of this course you will have a thorough understanding of the dynamic and complex relationship among foreign policy, the news and public opinion. While the primary focus of PPP-305 is American foreign policy, in the future you should be able to apply much of you will have learned both to domestic policy and to other countries. We will focus on four major elements of the fascinating interaction among policy, news and/or press, and public opinion. These are: 1. How policymakers view the American public, how they communicate with the public, and whether and how they take into account American public opinion in the development and presentation of American foreign policy. 2. How the news media cover international events and policymakers decisions and debates, how reporters and editors ideas about the American public, its competence and interests, affect news coverage of international matters; how the public is or is not influenced by the way in which the news is presented. 3. How American public opinion is structured; how it forms on issues related to the making and implementation of American foreign policy; and how the opinions of people in other countries affects, or does not affect, American public opinion and the public dialogue in this country. 4. How foreign policy issues enter the political dialogue among elected political/governmental officials and the American public; how issues are addressed in a political context; and the relationship among policy issues, people s expressed preferences and/or their votes; and aggregate public opinion about the administration s and Congress conduct of foreign policy in this country. You will achieve knowledge through four principal means: Introduction to leading contemporary and traditional literature about aspects of and the relationship among foreign policy, the news and public opinion; extensive exposure to and interaction with leading experts people who study American public opinion, and those who make, report on, try to influence and work on the presentation (and packaging) of American foreign policy; classroom lectures, student presentations and discussions; systematic following of the news of the day. In the fall of 2005, we will pay special attention to three very broad contemporary foreign policy areas: US Relations with the Rest of the World (with special focus on US 1

2 military and humanitarian engagements abroad and their impact on US relations with others), Globalization and Economic Competition (with special focus on the US trade deficit and US-China competition), and International Disparities (with special focus on global wealth disparity and whether these factors produce or contribute to anti-us sentiment, the impact of HIV-AIDS, and the on-going conflict between traditionalists and modern society). Students will be divided among these three policy areas and your in-class and written work will be tied to your policy area. Our focus will be not on the policies per se but on the way in which policymakers present them to the public; the way in which the news media convey information about them to the public; and the way in which the public views them. In other words, we will examine these policies in the context of US politics, news coverage and public opinion. At the conclusion of the course, you will understand how foreign policy affects public opinion, the news and the press (the journalists and editors); how the news and the press affect foreign policy and public opinion; and how public opinion affects foreign policy, the news and the press. EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS Mastery of assigned materials and class participation 30% Memo and briefing 20% each Final paper 30% An important note about succeeding in PPP-305: There will be 23 meetings of this course. This is a course in which most of what s important happens in the classroom. Those who come to class, participate and demonstrate command of the all the course materials (readings, clippings, lectures, student and guest presentations) will have a chance to receive a superior grade; others will not. Your written memos will be judged, in large part, on the extent to which you are able to incorporate what you have learned in class and from the reading. Even if you miss class, you will be responsible for the material covered in the class you missed. Audio recordings of each class session will be available on reserve in the KSG Library after class, and all handouts will be available as well. Obviously you are not required to agree with everything you have learned or heard in class, but you are required to acknowledge that a point has been made. For example, in your written work, if you fail to include an important point that was made in class or in the reading because you were inattentive or absent and that point is central to your presentation your grade will reflect that lapse. In your final paper, you will be required to document all of your sources and assertions and to use a conventional system of citation, such as found in The Chicago Manual of Style. Your final paper will be double-spaced with margins no smaller than one inch and font no smaller than 11. You are expected to proofread your paper before handing it in, and students for whom English is not their first language should show their paper to an English-speaking reader before handing it in. Finally, remember: media is plural and data is also plural. There will be two written and one oral assignment in the semester. The first will be a three-page memo, directed to a (real) senior policy official of your choice and will be due on Tuesday, November 8 th. The second will be an oral briefing of a cranky senior policy official and will take place in class on December 1 st, 6 th or 8 th, depending upon the policy area on 2

3 which you will concentrate in this class. Both the memo and the briefing will be based on course materials and necessarily concise, cogent and persuasive and there will be three possible levels of success: If you attain Level One, you will complete the assignment, make your argument but not do much more. On Level Two, you will refer to course materials (in-class lectures and discussions and the reading), but not add anything of your own. On Level Three, you will reach Levels One and Two, but you will have thought deeply about the issue at hand and, through your analysis in the memo, will add to what we read or discussed in class. As in the real world, you will suffer if you go beyond the designated length of the assignment or fail to be persuasive. Your final paper, which will not exceed 15 pages, including all notes, graphs and charts, will be an original research paper in which you will use primary sources. You will employ two of the three following methodologies: analysis of public opinion data, media content analysis, or subject interviews. In this paper you will examine some aspect of the relationship among foreign policy, the news and American public opinion. Although you will not be required to meet with me in advance to discuss this paper, if you do not meet with me and then fail to fully comply with the assignment, your grade will suffer. Although this paper will be due in Ayres Heller s office before 3:00 p.m. on January 17, 2006, you will receive a half-grade bonus for turning it in before December 31, MATERIALS There is no textbook on the subject of this course. Your reading materials will be included in Course Packets or on reserve in the KSG Library (or both). In addition, at the beginning of each class meeting I will hand out a packet of clippings which will include public opinion data, relate to the subject of the course, or illustrate an important point about the way in which the news media cover foreign policy. I will do my best to keep the costs of these clippings down, but you should be aware that you will be charged for these handouts, an essential part of the materials of this course. CALENDAR Thurs., Sept. 15,, 2005 Organization and Introduction In our first meeting we will introduce ourselves. I will explain how you will be divided among the three substantive areas on which we will focus this fall. We will discuss my expectations of you, including two written and one oral assignments, and the importance of attendance and participation. I will describe my approach to this scholarly field and what you can expect to learn in this course. Tues. Sept. 20 THEORY: The Relationship Among Foreign Policy, News and Public Opinion This course is not about foreign policy, the news media or public opinion per se it is about the complex, dynamic relationship among them. Today we will discuss how it is possible to study something that is both very elusive and very familiar. I will talk about the necessity of understanding the importance of both empirical testing and the difference between theory and practice. Ultimately this course should give you a set of practical skills that should serve you well as policymakers and citizens regardless of the policy area or the country. Required reading: Holsti in Lieber, Chapter 2, pp

4 Thurs. Sept. 22 THEORY: The Basics: The Nature and Structure of American Public Opinion In this lecture, I will give you an introduction to some of the theory about the nature and structure of American public opinion, focusing particularly on questions of its stability, rationality and coherence. If you are to understand American foreign policy as something other than a hot-house exercise among elite actors, if you want to understand how policy affects opinion and opinion affects policy in this democratic society, you must begin with an understanding of Americans long-term beliefs and preferences. Required reading: Page & Shapiro, pp Tues., Sept. 27 PRACTICE: Determining what Americans think about the World and our Place in It Today pollster Peter Hart will lead us in a discussion of how Americans opinions about the rest of the world are ascertained, and the uses to which those findings are put by policymakers and the news media. Thurs., Sept. 29 THEORY: Analyzing and Understanding Press Coverage of American Foreign Policy Some excellent empirical studies have determined that there are clear patterns to American media coverage of foreign policy, especially of international crises. Come to class prepared to discuss both the Berry and Nacos studies. In addition to the introductory materials (in your packets), you will be expected to read one additional chapter in either Berry or Nacos (on KSG Library reserve) to gain an understanding of how these scholars used the media content analysis methodology to reach their findings. Required reading: Berry, pp. xi-xix, Nacos, pp Sigal, pp AND Berry Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 (on Reserve) OR Nacos Chapter 1, 2, or 6 Tues., Oct. 4 PRACTICE: Presenting News of the World in a Post 9/11 World Former CNN Anchor and veteran journalist Judy Woodruff will join us in class today to discuss whether, since 9/11 and in conditions of conflict if not actual war, the world itself has changed sufficiently to warrant changes in ways in which news of the world is collected and presented to the American public. Required reading: Seib, xi-18 Thurs., Oct. 6 PRACTICE: Foreign Policy and Politics Today, possibly with the leadership of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, we will examine the political context in which foreign policy issues, decisions, and crises are debated before the American public. We will look at conventional wisdom s favorite and most cherished notion that this country is deeply divided between red and blue America and try to ascertain the effect of that belief on our and the news media s understanding of the relationship among policy, news and opinion. Required reading: Fiorina, pp. xii, 1-32 Tues., Oct. 11 PRACTICE: How American Journalists and Editors See and Present the World to the American Public Our guest today, New York Times reporter and former Deputy Foreign Editor, Elizabeth Becker, will discuss the way in which news about the world and American foreign policy is 4

5 gathered, organized, turned into a narrative, and presented to the American public. She will discuss these matters in the context of academic theory about indexing and the impact of framing of the news on news media behavior. Required reading: Bennett, pp Entman, pp Tues., Oct. 18 THEORY: CNN Got Us in, CNN Got Us Out: Impact of Foreign Policy News on American Public Opinion One of the sacred cows of conventional wisdom is that that news media, through the use of graphic pictures and the way in which they frame the news, wield disproportionate influence on US policy on and American public opinion about foreign military and humanitarian engagements. In our reading and discussion today, we will attempt to sort this out through the examination of empirical studies. Required reading: Strobel, 1-17 Larson, xv-xxiii, 42-49, 67-74, 94-96, Jentleson and Britten Thurs., Oct. 20 THEORY: Globalization, Economic Competition and Challenges for America Today business and civic leader James A. Johnson will discuss the current state of global economic competition, focusing particularly on the impact of the American budget deficit on US trade and economic relations with other nations. He will take a close look at the recent Chinese attempts to buy an American oil firm and Congress reaction, and he will look at these issues in the context of American politics, press, and public opinion. Tues., Oct. 25_ THEORY: The Structure of American Public and Elite Opinion on American Foreign Policy Both American public opinion and elite opinion conform to a certain structure, which has been studied and mapped by eminent scholars such as Ole Holsti and Eugene Wittkopf. Others like Walter Russell Mead have described these same structural differences in other ways. Today we will examine some of the theoretical materials that deal with the structure of elite and public opinion on American foreign policy and test them for relevance to our own times. Required reading: Holsti, pp Wittkopf, 25-27, Mead, pp. xv-xviii, 5-13, 30-35, 48-50, 79-93, Thurs., Oct. 27 THEORY: US Relations with the Rest of the World In today s class our Guest Lecturer (TBD) will examine questions that have arisen around the US wars on terrorism and in Iraq. We will examine some structural differences between US and European public opinion, in an attempt to assess whether these structural differences may have contributed to the conflict between the US and Europe. Required reading: 2002 German Marshall Fund Report: European Public Opinion and Foreign Policy in Worldview (Citation to follow.) Tues., Nov.1 THEORY: Who are the American Foreign Policy Elites? Because American foreign policy is largely developed and disseminated by a group of American elites for whom this is a primary professional and sometimes serious avocational focus, it is important to understand who these people are and the role they play vis a vis the public and the press. Today s class will focus on America s foreign policy elites. 5

6 Required reading: Holsti, pp Kegley & Wittkopf, pp Kull & Ramsay, Thurs., Nov. 3_ THEORY: International Disparities Former Dayton Peace Accords negotiator, US Ambassador to the United Nations and the Federal Republic of Germany, and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke will join us in class today to discuss the impact of global wealth (and health) disparities on US foreign policy, media coverage and American public opinion. He will talk to us about economic aid and development assistance, and the impact of HIV-AIDS on international relationships. Tues., Nov. 8 THEORY: The Relationship between Elite and Mass Opinion on American Foreign Policy Having studied American foreign policy elites and the American public, today we will talk about the relationship between elite and public (or mass) opinion on American foreign policy. We also will discuss questions concerning the influence of one body of opinion on the other. Required reading: Isaacs Tian and Nathan NOTE: Memo #1 due. Thurs., Nov. 10 PRACTICE: Managing the Coverage of Conflict in a Post 9/11 World Continuing our examination of press coverage of conflict in a post-9/11 world, today former Pentagon Public Affairs Assistant Secretary Torie Clarke, author of the Pentagon s controversial embedding policy, will lead our discussion about management of press coverage of modern conflicts. Required reading: Seib TBD Tues., Nov. 15 PRACTICE: What does the Rest of the World Think of Us and Do We Care?_ Andy Kohut, head of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, who, more than anyone else, has studied international publics opinion about the US, will present some of his findings to us in class today. He also will talk about American public and elite attitudes concerning others critical opinions about this country. Thurs., Nov. 17 PRACTICE: The President, the Press, the Public and Foreign Policy President Bush s senior communications advisor Mark McKinnon will join us in class today to discuss how the White House views the relationship among foreign policy, politics, press and public opinion. Mr. McKinnon also will talk with us about the issue of foreign policy in the 2004 presidential campaign. Tues., Nov. 29 THEORY: Wrap-up Nature & Structure of American Public Opinion on Foreign Policy Before you undertake your briefings of a crabby senior policy official, we will today attempt to tie all the disparate strings of this course together and summarize what you have learned about the relationship among foreign policy, politics, the press and public opinion. We also will take some time to discuss your final papers, due in January. 6

7 Thurs., Dec. 1 PRACTICE: Briefing a Crabby Senior Official: US Relations with the Rest of the World Tues., Dec. 6 PRACTICE: Briefing a Crabby Senior Official: Economic & Global Competition Thurs., Dec. 8 PRACTICE: Briefing a Crabby Senior Official: International Disparities Tues., Dec. 13 Last Class 7

8 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bennett, W. Lance. The News about Foreign Policy. In W. Lance Bennett, editor, Taken by Storm: The Media, Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy in the Gulf War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Pages ISBN: Berry, Nicholas O. Foreign Policy and the Press: An Analysis of the New York Times Coverage of US Foreign Policy. New York: Greenwood Press, Pages xi-xix, and selected chapter. ISBN: *Entman, Robert M. Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Pages ISBN: Fiorina, Morris P. et al. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New York, NY: Pearson Longman, Pages xii, ISBN: Holsti, Ole. Public Opinion and Foreign Policy. In Robert J. Leiber, editor, Eagle Rules? Foreign Policy and American Primacy in the Twenty-first Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Chapter 2, pp ISBN: Holsti, Ole. Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Revised edition. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, Pages , ISBN: Isaacs, Maxine. Two Different Worlds: The Relationship between Elite and Mass Opinion on American Foreign Policy. Political Communication 15: , Jentleson, Bruce W. and Rebecca L. Britton. Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force. Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (August 1998): Kagan, Robert. Power and Weakness: Why the United States and Europe see the World Differently. Policy Review 113. June and July Kegley, Charles W. and Eugene R. Wittkopf. American Foreign Policy: Pattern and Process. Fifth edition. New York, NY: St. Martin s Press, Pages ISBN: Kull, Steven and Clay Ramsay. Elite Misperceptions of US Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, Chapter 7. In Decisionmaking in a Glass House: Mass Media, Public Opinion, and American and European Foreign Policy in the 21 st Century. Brigitte L. Nacos et al, editors. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Pages ISBN: Larson, Eric V. Casualties and Consensus: The Historical Role of Casualties in Domestic Support for US Operations. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, Pages xv-xxiii, 42-49, 67-74, 94-96, ISBN: Mead, Walter Russell. Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Pages xv-xviii, 5-13, 30-35, 48-50, 79-93, ISBN:

9 Nacos, Brigitte Lebens. The Press, Presidents and Crises. New York: Columbia University Press, Pages and selected chapter. ISBN: Page, Benjamin I. and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans Policy Preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Pages ISBN: Seib, Philip. Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, Pages xi-18,. ISBN: Sigal, Leon V. Reporters and Officials: The Organization and Politics of Newsmaking. Out of print. Lexington, MA: DC Heath and Co., Pages ISBN: Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy: The News Media s Influence on Peace Operations. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, Pages ISBN: Tien, Charles and James A. Nathan. Trends: American Ambivalence Toward China. Public Opinion Quarterly 65:1 (Spring 2001): Wittkopf, Eugene R. Faces of Internationalism: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Pages 25-27, ISBN: