How far, if at all, do the media and public opinion influence US foreign and defence policy?

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: USA, grade: First/ 80%, University of Reading (United Kingdom - International Relations), course: US Foreign and Defence Policy, language: English, abstract: In the United States of America the media is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution: 'Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.' The media are institutions whose primary concern it is to produce and distribute all forms of knowledge, information and entertainment and encompass print media, television, radio and the internet. For the purposes of this paper, the focus shall be on television, as 'television is undoubtedly the pre-eminent form of the media in the United States' and it is the medium of choice for Americans looking for information. In a democracy such as the United States of America, the media ought to report impartially and in a way to inform and engage the public. Public opinion is understood as a collective view of a given issue. Foreign policy shall be defined as the goals a state wants to attain abroad, the values that determine to those objectives, and the means or instruments used to pursue them.