Monitored Broadcasts and Diplomacy

Abstract

Monitoring the output of the media for diplomatic purposes is far from being a modern practice: because the construction of foreign policy must begin with the gathering of accurate information, diplomats — both at home and stationed overseas — have valued journalists and news organizations as crucial sources of open intelligence since the dawn of the media age. With the growth of the electronic media, the need to monitor their output assumed an added urgency, especially given the propensity of radio and television signals to penetrate national borders, bypass governments and appeal directly to public opinion. In what has been described as an ‘era of geopolitical redefinition’, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how the flow of information across national borders can have a profound impact on the way that societies construct an identity of themselves, and of each other.¹ Modern communications technology means that the idea of a national sovereignty cocooned by impervious borders is fast becoming an anachronism.