Global Communication and Foreign Policy

This study investigated the effects global communication is having on the formulation and conduct of foreign policy and showed that it both constrains leaders and officials yet provides them with opportunities to advance their goals. The article presents a taxonomy where global communication is viewed as an actor in the policy process with corresponding attributes of type, activity, context, and concept. Four types of actors are identified: controlling, constraining, intervening, and instrumental. The article critically and respectively examines concepts developed to explain each type: the “CNN Effect theory,”“real-time policy,”“international political brokerage,” and “media diplomacy.” Although some of these concepts were found to be useful, major progress in this field requires interdisciplinary research based on joint application of theories and models from both communication and international relations.