Negotiating in the public eye

Do the media have the power to alter the course of U.S. arms control negotiations? Despite abundant television and newspaper coverage of arms control talks during the last decade, the question of the impact of electronic and print press has drawn little scholarly attention.

This innovative study, which combines detailed quantitative analysis of newspaper articles and television news stories with extensive interviews of leading journalist and government officials, demonstrates conclusively that the media, as an elite interest group, have the power to influence both the making of policy and the agenda for that policy.