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Chanan Naveh
The role of the media in establishing international security regimes
This article focuses
primarily on the media's impact on international security regimes. It
explores the ways in which the media affect the lifecycles of international
regimes, from the time they are first conceived of, through their establishment,
consolidation and stabilization, up until their ultimate demise. Although
this paper highlights the media's role in the evolution of security regimes,
it is clear that, regardless of the regime in question, media play a role
throughout the lifecycle of all international regimes, whatever their
character.
In order to analyze the relationships of the media with security regimes
in general, and specifically their contribution to each stage in their
development, the article utilizes methodologies from the field of communication
studies. It examines the media's agenda, "news values" and various
functions, and their ability to mobilize public support for the particular
issue of the regime.
To date, most studies have explored the interaction between media communication
patterns and global developments at the state level, or in relation to
the formulation of foreign policy, while largely ignoring the international
dimension of the relationship. This article attempts to remedy this situation,
and the relevant processes are analysed in a case study of the anti-Iraq
international security regime. It should be noted that although the paper
focuses on the specific anti-Iraqi regime, it is part of a more general
Anti-Rogue actors regime which includes the war against global terrorism.
The study of the development of the anti-Iraq press-security regime teaches
us that during international crises the media mobilize and unanimously
support the regime fighting the "bad guys." But, when the regime
develops and enters disputed turfs and begins to lose its legitimacy,
media support diminishes, and the media may even develop into an opposing
force and may join the actors fighting against this regime. Moreover,
the study of the Iraqi case shows that the actors who operate and promote
an international regime (whether it is a security regime or any other
sort of regime) also need to prepare themselves for managing the international
media. They must prepare proper media strategies, developing public relations
systems that will try to influence the media to support and join forces
with the regime and its norms.
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On the author:
Chanan Naveh is Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication Sapir Academic
College. He teaches also at the International Relations Department, Hebrew
University, Jerusalem. Until recently Dr. Naveh worked as a Senior Managing
Editor - News Department, Israeli Radio, The Voice of Israel. Dr. Naveh's
fields of interest include Media and foreign policy, international communication,
the internet as an international media environment, and International regimes
and media. He published papers in these fields and presented papers in international
and Israeli academic conferences on these topics.
Address: School of Communication Sapir Academic College, D.N. Hof
Ashkelon 79165, Israel. eMail: msnaveh@huji.ac.il
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