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Several of Cohen's assumptions passed into the conventional wisdom about the media and foreign policy and still persist. However, the hindsight of more than a quarter century of experience with television suggests some obvious modifications or qualifications in each of the foregoing propositions as well as Cohen's tripartite analytical frame-work. (9)

Television amplifies the observer role of the media in foreign policy as its broad, immediate, and visual reach extends all around the world, expanding the geopolitical scope of the foreign policy process. Symptoms of this development include the growing number of television channels and receivers, along with increased gathering and sharing of visual news by television organizations. In contrast to Cohen's assumption, the newsgathering and editing processes in television are acknowledged to be so influenced by the visual component of the broadcast as to suggest a decisive difference from print media. Furthermore, television news archives and videocassette recorders make the products of television more lasting than ephemeral. Television has also made the media a more direct and active participant in the foreign policy process. In 1963 Cohen identified "the massive central issue" in debates among . . . . . . (pages omitted here)