Revisiting Downs' Issue-Attention Cycle: International Terrorism and U.S. Public Opinion

Abstract

Lamenting the lack of public awareness of international events and U.S. foreign policy is not a particularly novel exercise; yet, explaining the process by which issues enter and exit the public realm remains a challenging endeavor. Despite contributions from researchers working in international relations and mass communication, explaining public inattentiveness continues to vex scholars. However, in his article, "Up and Down with Ecology: The 'IssueAttention Cycle,'" Anthony Downs provides a parsimonious and tractable model of public opinion that can be applied to foreign policy issues.1 While Downs concerns himself exclusively with domestic issues, particularly environmental issues, his model has thepotential to contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the public and policymakers over critical issues such as international terrorism. With minor modifications, the model has the potential to explain public support for failed foreign policies as well. Downs' model, when applied to international terrorism, explains why policymakers seek simple solutions, why the public supports such solutions, and why the media fail to provide meaningful coverage of intractable issues such as international terrorism. Before discussing Downs' model, the basic tenets and shortcomings of some of the more prevalent theories of the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy are discussed below.

Attitudinal and Emotional Consequences of Islamist Terrorism. Evidence from the Berlin Attack

“…Consequences of terrorism on political attitudes and emotions are relevant, given that terrorists pursue political aims and intend to instill fear among a wider audience (Hoffman, 2006, p. 40). Also, depending on their ideological preferences, politicians can act upon assumed changes in public opinion and justify their policies with the supposed consent of the population in the aftermath of terrorist attacks (Hall & Ross, 2015; Petersen, 2009). Improved knowledge of whether and how opinions and emotions are affected by terrorist attacks allows the broader public to keep politicians in check.…”

Nonprofit Advocacy in the Era of Trump

“…The realization of the costs and other challenges associated with the war on terrorism, however, contributed to a gradual decline in media and public attention to the issue. There have been some occasional spikes in public interest when additional focusing events such as attacks in Madrid and London took place (Petersen 2009). Reyes (2010) also finds a similar pattern of issue-attention cycle regarding immigration policies as she observes immigration to be a recurring issue that surfaces on the policy agenda during election times.…”

“…Downs's Issue-Attention Cycle theory has widely been adopted by public policy and mass communication scholars to explain changes in the media and policy agendas. For example, Petersen (2009) observes foreign policy related issues, especially international terrorism, often follow Downs's issue-attention cycle. Despite the tendency that foreign policy is typically an alien concept to most of the general public, the scale of September 11th was sufficiently large enough to generate a high level of public awareness regarding international terrorism and zeal to find solutions followed.…”

“…Several theoretical arguments are relevant to our examination. One is Downs's (1972) issue-attention-cycle where the author predicts a surge in public attention to a systemic societal problem immediately after a crisis, followed by gradual decline in interest upon the realization of the difficulties concerned with solving the problem (see Petersen 2009;Reyes 2010;Shih, Wijaya, and Brossard 2008 for more recent applications of the issue-attention cycle theory). The other theory concerns Olson's (1965) collective action dilemma that highlights the challenges associated with mobilizing resources for public interest advocacy organizations whose missions are to produce nonexcludable public goods (see Bimber, Flanagin, and Stohl 2005;Esteban and Ray 2001;Klandermans and Stekelenburg 2013;Kuhnert 2001 for critical applications of the collective action theory across disciplines).…”

<b>A visibilidade de desastres ecológicos no século XXI: revisitando o <i>issue-attention cycle</i> de Downs

“…Mas, quando devidamente contextualizadas, encontramos elementos valiosos e contestáveis nas ideias de Anthony Downs (1972) sobre ecologia e ambiente, mas que restam indevidas ou parcialmente apropriadas pela academia, seja apenas utilizando-as com autoridade, sem qualquer ponderação a respeito (Petersen, 2009;Daw, Morgan, Thomson, & Law, 2013), ou mencionadas como corretas e até evidenciadas pela 'realidade' (Miguel & Coutinho, 2007;Vivarta, 2010;Egler, 2012), ou tomadas como abordagem rudimentar (Gomes & Almada, 2014). Ainda, encontramos pesquisas que as comprovaram empiricamente (Newig, 2004;Thogersen, 2006) e até mesmo uma tentativa de ampliação das ideias originais, após suposta validação empírica (McComas & Shanahan, 1999).…”