Among the press‘s roles are what are called the “three
I’s” – information, interpretation, and interest. Roger Hilsman,
a political scientist and State Department official in the John
F. Kennedy administration, identified “the gathering and
dissemination of information” as a major function of the press.
The flow of information through the press [...] is the lifeblood of
America’s democratic system.
Information in press coverage of foreign affairs is
almost always accompanied by interpretation. Journalists
provide contexts (often called “frames”) in which information
is conveyed. “By suggesting the cause and relationships
of various events,” the political scientist Doris A. Graber
observes, “the media may shape opinions even without telling
their audiences what to believe or think. For example, linking
civil strife in El Salvador [in the 1980s] to the activities of
Soviet and Cuban agents ensured that the American public
would view the situation with considerable alarm.” Among
policymakers in Washington, Hilsman notes, “the press is not
the sole source of interpretation. The president, the secretary
of state, the assistant secretaries, American ambassadors,
senators, congressmen, academic experts – all are sources
of interpretation. But the fact that the press is there every day,
day after day, with its interpretations makes it the principal
competitor of all the others in interpreting events”.
The press also can play an important role in stirring interest
in an issue both in Washington and among the public. During
the Ronald Reagan years media reporting awakened public
interest on starvation in Ethiopia, a topic that Americans had
shown little interest in prior to the appearance of illustrated
stories about dying children in the press and on television. An
example from the James Earl Carter years was the debate
over whether to deploy enhanced radiation nuclear bombs
(also called neutron bombs) in western Europe. The debate
began with a story by Walter Pincus in the Washington Post
on 6 June 1977. A quotation in the story noted that the bombs
would „kill people“ while „leaving buildings and tanks standing.“
Once the story was framed in this negative way – on television
and radio as well as in newspapers and magazines – the
administration was not able to gain public and congressional
support for deploying the new weapon. The unfolding of this
story illustrates a frequent pattern in foreign policy: print
journalists often bring stories to public attention, after which
they are covered by other print and electronic reporters.
(https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/
The-Press-The-press-s-many-roles.html. Acesso em 22.02.2020)