Mechanisms of Influence of Western Media Strategies on Public Opinion in Developing Countries

The work systematizes the latest foreign studies showing that citizens of the Global South increasingly receive news primarily through digital platforms of Western media holdings, which reinforces their dependence on external information sources. The analysis of the updated concept of "smart soft power" demonstrates that strategic narrativization and cultural citation remain key tools for the influence of Western actors in the networked environment. Authoritarian players adopt Western media tactics, intensifying competition for the agenda and altering the balance of information flows in developing countries. Negative framing of the region in global news leads to economic losses—overestimation of risks costs Africa up to £3.2 billion annually. The "CNN effect" theory remains relevant: emotional reporting accelerates the formation of public demand for external intervention, as evidenced by the Indonesian case from 2016 to 2021. Influence is more often determined by prolonged media agendas rather than isolated messages, which the Al Jazeera Institute analysis emphasizes. The established typology of mechanisms—content framing, algorithmic distribution, partner news networks, and cultural co-branding—offers practical recommendations for states and NGOs to enhance media literacy and diversify information flows. An integrative review of 67 English-language scholarly sources (2019–2025) was conducted using the PRISMA protocol. The analysis combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The theoretical framework includes the concepts of soft power, framing, and encoding/decoding. The main findings of the research highlight four interconnected mechanisms of the influence of Western media strategies on public opinion in the Global South: content framing, algorithmic distribution, partner news networks, and cultural co-branding; establish direct economic losses of up to £3.2 billion annually for African countries due to negative framing; and confirm the relevance of the CNN effect based on the Indonesian case from 2016 to 2021. The author's special contribution to the study of the topic is the systematization of the "smart soft power" concept in relation to the digital environment and the development of a typology of long-term effects of influence. The novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive analysis of the hybrid impact of editorial and algorithmic tools, as well as in formulating practical recommendations for states and NGOs to strengthen media literacy, diversify information flows, and reduce economic risks arising from distorted perceptions of developing countries.

Media strategies, Western media, Public opinion, Global South, Framing, Algorithmic distribution, Cultural co-branding, Soft power, Media literacy, CNN-effect