Media and politics 2017

1. Media and Politics
Quiz
1.1. Power

2. 1. Define power in general and then cyber
power. Explain how power can be “hard”
or “soft.

3. Power is the ability to affect other people, groups or states
to get the outcomes one wants.
Cyberspace is a new domain for power like sea and air, but
less dependent on money and military capabilities. So,
cyber power is the ability to affect other people, groups or
states to get the outcomes one wants, by using
electronically linked communication means.
Soft power: Framing, attraction and persuasion.
Hard power: Coercion and payment.
(Efficient use of power is the ability to know when to apply
either soft or hard power. Nye calls it SMART POWER)

4. 2. Outline what public diplomacy – and
“new public diplomacy” refers to.

5. Public diplomacy – in the narrow sense - occurs when a
Government or an IGO communicates directly with citizens
in other states.
Hence, public diplomacy represents an attempt to increase
“soft power”, through increasing the attraction of a state
and/or legitimizing its policies, by appealing to the public
opinion and "hearts and minds” of foreign citizens.
In the wider “new” sense it also includes non-state actors,
such as NGOs or companies as “senders” - or migrant
groups originating from foreign countries and a country’s
own emigrant “diaspora” in foreign countries as
“receivers”.

6. 3. What is «cultural imperialism»?

7. The globalization of media and culture
involves the systematic exploitation and
cultural domination of small countries by
powerful transnational companies based in
wealthy parts of the world.

8. 4. Do you remember what «framing» is?

9. «Framing» is the process of (de)selecting and
re-presenting events or aspects of a perceived
reality.
It produces the meaning of – and ability to
navigate through - a complex world.
In media texts framing of events is visible
through selection of headlines, use of words,
images, sounds etc. and their linking to
produce a “story”.

10. 5. Explain «vectors» - as applied in the
context of media and international
relations

11. Virilio employs vectors to mean any trajectory
along which bodies, information or warheads
can potentially pass.
In our context it refers to the routes along
which information about war and similar
events is communicated.
For instance, the satellite technology used to
beam images from Iraq to America and on to
London can be thought of as a vector.