Ethiopia and Somalia In the 1980s and 1990s, the media's portrayal ofthe death and starvation in Ethiopia and Somalia further demonstratestheir power in the foreign policy arena. In the former case, journalist PeterBoyer summarized the power of a 1984 NBC report on the wideningEthiopian famine
Media acts as government’s tool due to dependency on official information and shared elite values.
The Vietnam War. The emergence of the "media as actor" role usuallydates from the Vietnam War
Media as Actors: Independent influencers shaping the foreign policy agenda through coverage. Criticism: Some argue media follow political consensus rather than create it.
Yet these efforts at greateraccess have not enhanced newspaper circulation, which in fact hasdeclined from about 62.2 million readers in 1980, to 46.3 million in2009, and to about 25 million in 2020 (24.3 million daily and 25.8 mil-lion on Sunday
People are consuming media is so many different ways, washing out traditional forms of media
The development of the World WideWeb, the use of cellular phones, the growth of smartphones and applica-tions ("apps"), the emergence of text messaging, the explosion of socialmedia (whether Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)
Growth in radio stations, cable systems, and digital platforms (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok).
Decline of print newspapers; increased digital access.
"CNN-ization of the world,
symbolizes the rise of 24-hour news