Press coverage of selected members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee in their states and districts

This research analyzed the foreign affairs news coverage of 18 members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee in newspapers back in their home states and districts. The study drew on previous research in two areas--Congress and the news media, and the international flow of news. Data was generated by three sources: a content analysis of news in 18 daily newspapers around the country, plus one national newspaper, the Washington Post; a content analysis of the news releases distributed by members of the two committees; and interviews conducted with press secretaries, journalists, and others. The study found the foreign affairs coverage to be a mere trickle rather than a genuine flow with much more attention going to domestic issues. Members and journalists agreed that the public is more interested in news about domestic issues that could be more easily related to such everyday concerns as jobs, pollution, and crime. The foreign affairs coverage that did appear was not well rounded. It emphasized only a few countries and issues. National security concerns dominated the coverage--wars in Nicaragua and the Persian Gulf, the loss of intelligence secrets to the Soviet Union, weapons sales to foreign countries, and covert operations. Other important issues on the world agenda went uncovered--for example, environmental deterioration and the disease, poverty, hunger, and other ills that beset the developing countries. The coverage reflected a strong East-West orientation. One key to generating press coverage back home was to find a local angle to foreign affairs in one of three ways: issues that combined domestic and international dimensions (intermestic issues), especially trade with its emphasis on jobs; issues of special interest to ethnic groups in the community; and initiatives by local organizations and individuals--for example, interest groups that try to influence a senator's vote on a foreign affairs issue. For a number of reasons, the coverage of members of Congress in newspapers back in their home states makes only a minimal contribution toward creating an informed public on foreign affairs.