American Journalism and International Relations

Giovanna Dell'Orto is Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, where she received her Ph.D. in 2004. She was a reporter for The Associated Press in three US states and Italy. She is the author of The Hidden Power of the American Dream: Why Europe's Shaken Confidence in the United States Threatens the Future of US Influence (2008) and Giving Meanings to the World: The First US Foreign Correspondents, 1838–1859 (2002) and co-author (with Hazel Dicken-Garcia) of Hated Ideas and the American Civil War Press (2008).

• 1. Introduction: the American press and international relations; 2. A new country, a new profession: America and its foreign correspondents get ready to take on the world; 3. America takes global center stage: the ascent of a political and communication power; 4. The media are American in the American century: the apex of American political and communication power; 5. A web of disentanglements: American policy and media struggle to engage the post-Cold War world; 6. The importance of being there and making people care: the troubled present and possible futures of US foreign correspondence; 7. Conclusion: reaffirming journalism's role in world affairs.

'Dell'Orto's reflections on the past and future of international news as it relates to American democracy merit close attention by anyone interested in the evolution of the nation's worldview and in its need for substantive foreign news. This volume makes a major contribution to the study of journalism and international relations from an American perspective.' James D. Startt, American Journalism