Case Study: Malaysia
Rushed Political Decisions
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the Carter administration responded in only a few hours because they wanted a government statement to appear on the evening news. In this instance, video encouraged a hasty decision on policy which may or may not have been the same after some time had gone by to consider and gather more information.
A similar situation occurred with the Reagan administration after the Soviet shootdown of Korean Airlines flight 007 (Gergen). After a quick decision to condemn the Soviet Union, they later found out that some of the original information about the occurrence had been wrong. Policy may have been different, if the administration were not focused on public reaction and the evening news.
Another affect of video on governmental policy, is the sources that government leaders receive their information from. Sometimes the government finds out information through television rather than "conducting diplomacy through traditional means." During the Iran hostage crisis, Carter, "spent more time watching the 3 television sets simultaneously beaming the latest news about the crisis into the Oval Office than he did reading CIA cables containing the latest evaluations of how to deal with it" (Wallach). It is unclear who is deciding policy when the president is listening to the media's view of events. The way the information is told could affect the decisions about policy.
