Week 1: intro to Foreign policy and media

In our first week of class, we took a look at what makes up foreign policy and how it is made. Among its elements are domestic politics, type of government, the roles and nature of the leaders, individual and national interests, religion, culture, geography, ethnic identity, economics and history. we also discussed the iterative and interactive nature of foreign policy. Foreign policy is iterative in nature because a country must deal again and again with other countries and their own domestic elements. As a result, foreign policy makers are constantly looking at what happened in previous encounters, keeping the previous events in mind when dealing with current situations. Foreign policy is also interactive in nature because what the other actors do will affect the choices of the foreign policy makers at home. Actions are never isolated incidents; they influence everyone else. We then addressed the functions of media. It announces foreign policy; sets the stage by IDing problems, friends, and foes; and it is a method of informing individuals, governments, and non-government actors. The media also shape domestic and public opinion, ballasts or balances the governments account of things, and shapes the perceptions of others.

Two questions:
1. Which forms of media have more power over swaying public opinion, and among to what groups of people do different media sources cater?
2. What were the difference in how foreign policy was conducted before the advent of radio or the telegraph?

1. The forms of media that tend to have more power in swaying public opinion are the news networks that have been around for decades. They already have loyal audiences and people tend to get their news from here. Television and radio tend to be popular among most groups, while blogs and other online media tend to be more popular among younger audiences.