The CNN Effect: Strategic Enabler or Operational Risk?

Abstract

he military and the media have significantly improved their relationship since the days of the Vietnam War, America's first television war. Beginning with the Vietnam War, commanders faced a new challenge - directing their units before a television camera. Today strategic leaders may find themselves directing commands before a live camera, one that never blinks, on a global stage. Satellite technology and the proliferation of 2417 news networks have created and increased the so-called 'CNN effect' on strategic level decision-making and how warfighters direct their commands. The military must understand, anticipate, and plan for this new dynamic. This paper chronicles military-media relations from Vietnam to today and discusses the media as a potential source of operational risk as well as a strategic enabler. Friction between the military and the media will continue to some degree in the future. In spite of this friction, strategic leaders and warfighters must harness the increasing power of the fourth estate as a strategic enabler while hedging against operational risk.