Baum, M., & Groeling, T.J. (2010). War stories: The causes and consequences of public views of war.

Abstract

What has become of the active journalists during the Vietnam War like Walter Cronkite who was able to influence foreign policy of the United States? Drawing on a collection of earlier published research into the news coverage of conflicts in which the United States was involved, the authors show that something changed dramatically over time. In the so-called “strategic bias” theory, they argue that the interaction between elites, the media and public opinion is a three-way process in which each group’s behaviour is essentially strategic. Starting from an overwhelming amount of hypotheses, data and results, the book provides the reader with interesting insights into journalism and the effects of news coverage on public opinion in “a second partisan press era”. The authors base their hypotheses on a variety of theories, which are discussed very briefly, making the theoretical basis rather shallow. Moreover, the different chapters provide unnecessary repetition of the theoretical basis, which does not add to the readability of the book as a whole.