Description:
David Perlmutter examines concerns over the interplay of pictures in the press, elite decision-making and public opinion on foreign policy. His focus is on certain celebrated, indelible images that, it is said, sum up famous events, provoke moral outrage, mobilize public opinion, and spur government action: the icons of outrage. Discourse elites thrust greatness upon such images as well as frame their meaning and interpretation. The public only plays a marginal role in making icons; ordinary readers and viewers are, however, often resistant or indifferent to elite interpretation and pretensions of "outrage." To explore these ideas, Professor Perlmutter offers a series of case studies in… crises in American foreign policy and the images that came to define and affect them: the Tet offensive in 1968, the Tiananmen events of 1989, and the Somalia intervention of 1992-1994. In each case, icons became sites of political struggle and argumentation, tools of policy rather than masters of it. Actual effects on public opinion are rarely found. Presidents, diplomats, pundits, and journalists, when confronting news images, apply a first person effect, projecting onto "all of America" or even "the whole world" their personal reaction to an icon. As Perlmutter shows, the influence of icons of outrage lies in their ability to focus debate, not in any power of visual determinism. He concludes that rather than worrying about how pictures affect policy, more attention should be paid to how politicians manage, frame, and "spin" images to win support for policies. A provocative study for students, scholars, and the public concerned with visual communication, the mass media, and current international affairs.
Author bio:
David Perlmutter, M.D. is a Naples, Florida, based American physician, author, and scholar. He is the president of the Perlmutter Health Center. He wrote the New York Times bestselling book Grain Brain, released September, 2013. The book addresses nutritional and lifestyle influences and their impact on neurological disorders, such as Dementia. Perlmutter serves as a medical advisor for The Dr. Oz Show, and lectures at symposia sponsored by such medical institutions as Harvard University, the University of Arizona, Scripps Institute, New York University, and Columbia University. His contributions to medical literature include publications appearing in the Journal of Neurosurgery, the… Southern Medical Journal, Journal of Applied Nutrition, and Archives of Neurology. Perlmutter has received awards for his approaches to neurological disorders including the 2002 Linus Pauling Award, 2006 National Nutritional Foods Association Clinician of the Year Award, and 2010 Humanitarian of the Year award from the American College of Nutrition. His title The Grain Brain Cookbook: More then 150 Life Changing Gluten-free Recipes to Transform Your Health made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014.