As we see in Chapter 3, Soviet journalists go to great lengths to report about American life and “the growing convergence between Soviet and American people” (Fainberg 83) and that the trips of the delegation members showed that the usual Soviet coverage of America was “disruptive for establishing good relations”(Fainberg 84) between the two countries. Journalists went through hard conditions and their work was vetted, but despite this, they shaped Soviet engagement with the outside world. This opened the gates for openness in foreign policy under Khrushchev, publicized socialism, and peaceful competition. Journalists even acknowledged their power, and knew that their mistakes could “harm the improving relations” (Fainberg 90).
This leads me to wonder, how many of the world’s problems could be solved if there was just transparency between countries and efforts to learn about the another country’s culture and life? It seems to me that these journalists, with the help of Khrushchev’s reforms, made a bigger difference than just plain, old, foreign policy had in years. Why do you think international journalism was so effective at improving the relations between the US and the USSR? Do you think relations could have been even better if journalists were completely liberated, or could that maybe makes things worse, as the USSR would no longer be promoting their own agenda and therefore get upset?
I think that international journalism was effective because it opened the doors to see how both the Soviet Union and the U.S were living after being slightly closed off to each other. Although, I think that it was intentional to show the failures of capitalism to the Soviet People to enforce the idea of why “communism” in the Soviet Union was better than capitalism in the U.S. Such as the example of the heart surgery costing a lot more in the U.S while in the Soviet Union it was easily accessible and inexpensive. So, I think that it was effective to further the comparison and the competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S