The Host and the Bad News Government policy and public opinion work on a two-way street. Opinion reacts to politics; in turn, opinion shapes policy. Broadcast media speeds up this game of ping pong to an even more personal and democratized level, often bypassing multiple filters as informational television delivers streams into our living rooms. Print media slows down and becomes increasingly visual: the bright colors and images of USA Today contrast with the Wall Street Journal's stark dissemination of facts. Television becomes an emotionally charged and urgent medium when viewers can hear the intonation of the voice and see the facial features that accompany the events on the scene from minute to minute. The figures featured in these broadcasts are television journalists, household names like Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather, people who have won the public's trust for two, perhaps three generations of viewers. I hope to explain the connection I see between television technology, public opinion and foreign policy. I believe that technological factors such as television have spread more power to the masses in terms of their ability to receive information, but have also given power to those who transmit it, i.e. the anchors. I also consider the role of the media in times of crisis, which is usually simply broadcasting government information and policies rather than being gatekeepers. Briefly summarized by author Bethami Dobkin, in terms of terrorism, television media reinforces government structures and rhetoric, and broadcasts them in a fast-paced, yet intensely personal manner. The results increased the presidents' popularity ratings. "The public has rewarded those presidents who have taken action and taken center stage... center stage... information is national security. Obviously, journalists should not have to put lives in danger to publish where they want Navy SEALS". be on the landing. Television technology and its representatives play a crucial role in this recent terrorist event. In some ways, we are more informed about events, but we are forced to see it through an unchallenged framework that prescribes drastic actions that many people are reticent to fully engage in before further exploration is done. At the same time, many people are ready to act after seeing firsthand the immediacy and scope of the issue on television. Works Cited O'Neill, Michael J. Terrorist Spectaculars: Should TV Coverage Be Curbed. ? New York: Priority Press Publications, 1986. Dobkin, Bethami A. Tales of Terror: Television News and the Construction of the Terrorist Threat New York: Praegar Publishers, 1992.