The News Media and International Relations: Experience and the Media Reality

Abstract

Apart from the business of our daily lives, none of us can hope to experience the world first-hand. We rely on the news media, among other things, to bring that world to us. How the media go about performing their task is of greatest importance, since their account of the world outside of our daily lives creates the 'media reality' on which we base so much. This is a paper about why we come to depend on the media reality as a cornerstone of our understanding of the world.