Abstract
Today’s highly partisan political environment easily lends itself to binary assessments of the media. Depending on your political orientation, certain media organizations may be perceived as either an excellent watchdog or a conniving government collaborator. Historically speaking, the media have been both. In her sweeping and ambitious book, American Journalism and International Relations: Foreign Correspondents from the Early Republic to the Digital Age, Giovanna Dell’Orto documents both roles, but argues that the substance of media coverage of foreign correspondence is less important than the fact that the coverage exists at all.
In a dense introduction, Dell’Orto, a former reporter for the Associated Press and currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, explicates a constructivist approach to mass media and international relations. Artfully drawing on theory from both fields, she views mass media narratives as a mediator of foreign policy due to their ability to shape a shared global discourse. Dell’Orto argues that using a constructivist approach, one that acknowledges the socially constructed and historical features of discourse, facilitates making causal claims “supported by a secondary analysis of social, political, and institutional practices.”
In the next four chapters of the book, Dell’Orto reports on a discourse analysis of two thousand news articles spanning twenty international incidents described by American foreign correspondents between 1848 and 2008. Notably and understandably, Dell’Orto does not look at conflicts the United States was directly involved in, arguing in such circumstances, “war correspondence is essentially domestic news.” In the final main chapter before the conclusion, Dell’Orto offers a call to action for the future of foreign correspondence, essentially arguing for its sustainability despite the cost-cutting measures pursued by major news organizations.
Dell’Orto is at her best explaining her historical case studies. She offers a model of cultural history, prefacing each chapter with an overview of the political, social, cultural, and economic realities of a period before delving into specifics. Her choice of case studies are engaging and cover some lesser studied periods of American foreign correspondence, including the Boxer Rebellion and the Russian Revolution. It is fascinating to read how early foreign correspondents inserted their own eyewitness narratives into stories while still offering valuable analysis. Over time, foreign correspondence became more homogenized, leading Dell’Orto to point out an important paradox: international relations became more complex in the twenty-first century, “But as fewer correspondents with less time constructed more repetitive, reductive discourses about the world, the chances of having an informed debate about foreign affairs, and a broadly engaged global policy, seemed likely to diminish.”
Documenting the decline of American foreign correspondents segues to the least satisfying chapter of the book, chapter 6, “The Importance of Being There and Making People Care: The Troubled Present and Possible Futures of U.S. Foreign Correspondence.” Dell’Orto argues that “the biggest problem with today’s foreign correspondence is simply that there is not enough of it.” She asserts that her call to action to have more foreign news by American correspondents is not driven by nostalgia but out of real concern for the value of media discourse in advancing foreign policy by inviting important issues into the realm of public discourse. Dell’Orto acknowledges that the financial imperatives of the news business favor stringers and citizen reporters, themes echoed in interviews with media executives, but she does not offer any novel ideas for bringing foreign correspondence back. Furthermore, Dell’Orto is quickly dismissive of nonlegacy and start-up media organizations such as the Global Post, for not having large enough audiences to impact mass discourse. For someone who pages earlier provided copious evidence, this claim feels unfair, especially because editors of these publications are omitted from her interviews.
Declarations about the future of journalism aside, Dell’Orto’s book is a valuable contribution to research on mass media and international relations and journalism history. Social scientists who may be skeptical about the legitimacy of Dell’Orto’s causal claims based on discourse analysis, might find themselves won over by her contextualizations and synthesis of a truly impressive amount of data. Also, her skillful merger of the constructivist approach in international relations and discourse analysis will be useful for other scholars seeking to justify content and discourse analysis. Finally, journalism history sorely lacks a strong textbook and some of these chapters would be welcome additions in both undergraduate and graduate courses.