Among the press‘s roles are what are called the “three I’s” – information, interpretation, and interest. Roger Hilsman, a political scientist and State Department official in the John F. Kennedy administration, identified “the gathering and dissemination of information” as a major function of the press. The flow of information through the press [...] is the lifeblood of America’s democratic system.

    Information in press coverage of foreign affairs is almost always accompanied by interpretation. Journalists provide contexts (often called “frames”) in which information is conveyed. “By suggesting the cause and relationships of various events,” the political scientist Doris A. Graber observes, “the media may shape opinions even without telling their audiences what to believe or think. For example, linking civil strife in El Salvador [in the 1980s] to the activities of Soviet and Cuban agents ensured that the American public would view the situation with considerable alarm.” Among policymakers in Washington, Hilsman notes, “the press is not the sole source of interpretation. The president, the secretary of state, the assistant secretaries, American ambassadors, senators, congressmen, academic experts – all are sources of interpretation. But the fact that the press is there every day, day after day, with its interpretations makes it the principal competitor of all the others in interpreting events”.

    The press also can play an important role in stirring interest in an issue both in Washington and among the public. During the Ronald Reagan years media reporting awakened public interest on starvation in Ethiopia, a topic that Americans had shown little interest in prior to the appearance of illustrated stories about dying children in the press and on television. An example from the James Earl Carter years was the debate over whether to deploy enhanced radiation nuclear bombs (also called neutron bombs) in western Europe. The debate began with a story by Walter Pincus in the Washington Post on 6 June 1977. A quotation in the story noted that the bombs would „kill people“ while „leaving buildings and tanks standing.“ Once the story was framed in this negative way – on television and radio as well as in newspapers and magazines – the administration was not able to gain public and congressional support for deploying the new weapon. The unfolding of this story illustrates a frequent pattern in foreign policy: print journalists often bring stories to public attention, after which they are covered by other print and electronic reporters.

(https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/ The-Press-The-press-s-many-roles.html. Acesso em 22.02.2020)