The CNN effect reconsidered (again): problematizing ICT and global governance in the CNN effect research agenda

Abstract

Early CNN effect research considered policy effects associated with cumbersome satellite uplinks of limited capacity. Today, nearly ubiquitous mobile telephony and highly portable satellite uplinks enable high-speed data transmission, including voice and video streaming, from most remote locations. Also, important geopolitical realignments have occurred since the end of the Cold War. The US is now challenged by new economic and cultural powerhouses, and by the rise of networked nonstate actors. It is not simply a matter of realignment among nation-states, as the original CNN effects research noted, but also a realignment between the type, scope and scale of actors involved in global governance. Rather than confining the argument to a consideration of media effects on state policy processes, this article argues that important technological and political developments call for a new research path, one that centers on the relationship between governance and the nature of a given information environment.