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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

TRANSFORMATIVE MOBILIZATION: FROM OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN TECHNIQUES TO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
NOV 9, 2008 - 6:33PM PDT
Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by this author

It may be peculiar to comment on one’s own blog. But, having just provided a post on possible directions for Obama’s international broadcasting and public diplomacy strategy, I realized I had missed the elephant (or donkey) in the room. In thinking about a strategy for the new administration, the obvious question (so obvious that it’s already three-quarters asked) is: what would it mean to harness, for global understanding, the Obama campaign’s approach to “movement” thinking and its brilliant exploitation of the potential of the Internet? International broadcasters have been struggling with the question of how to adjust to new technology. But often, it’s like a gaggle of geezers trying to figure out how to use TiVo. There are important steps, papers, conferences, tests, modifications, and adjustments, but it’s not clear there has been a visionary breakthrough. The Obama team is pretty clearly sitting on some global version of the kind of organization, energy, and understanding of technology that has extraordinary potential. It netted him those hundreds of millions in contributions but-- more important for public diplomacy-- that mother lode of emotive connection. The issue is how to bottle this, how to turn it to constructive mobilization, and use it as a way of changing dramatically the Manichean narratives out there in the world. Billions seem to want to be connected; they are shouting it from the rooftops. I reiterate, I’m not saying this search for innovation as savior is new. James Glassman, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, has vaunted the move to new technology and the Internet. Daniel Kimmage of Radio Free Europe wrote a New York Times op-ed last June, in which he argued (maybe a bit too triumphantly) that the U.S. was already playing with Web 2.0 while Al Qaeda was still in 1.0. This may be, but (without being too adulatory) the Obama campaign has been on the Web on steroids. How can this energy be captured? How can public diplomacy in a web world contribute to building a collaborative community, a mass that sees itself committed to a common theme of repair or restoration rather than a set of efforts “aimed at” particular audiences? This use of technology is far more personal, more engaged, and more persevering. But, it involves a total rethinking, restaffing, and reinvention of public diplomacy and with it a transformation of international broadcasting. This is not captured by “bottom-up” or user generated content; it’s got some quality of what William Rugh (former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen and the U.A.E) calls mobilization, oddly enough. It departs from the paradigms of the past. How it works— how it worked in the campaign— is something that is elusive. A random blog about the Obama campaign (written at a middle stage in the campaigning marathon) captures something of the spirit: E.politics has long preached the virtues of integrated online/offline communications, and it's fascinating to see a major campaign with big resources put the idea into action and really go…... FULL TEXT
 
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Andy Pryce, British Embassy on November 12, 2008 @ 8:34 am:
An exceptionally well made point. There is huge amount PD practitioners can learn from even the briefest study of recent national political campaigns.

We diplomats need to start using the web for our day to day transactions.

At present no-one will wake up one morning and decide to visit our website to read our Minister's speeches, no matter how relevant and timely they are. We are seeking to address this by looking at ways of engaging online with our audiences and building our own (not Obama sized) e-mail databases so we can politely tell people when there are things we think they should read.

More generally, if we have a specific and crucial point to make we look to directly use a range of well targeted media (web, TV, Radio, newspapers) as well as working with external partners.

Andy Pryce

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/pryce/

Nick Cull on November 14, 2008 @ 5:15 pm:
Excellent points Monroe -- I wonder if Metzl will be brought into the Obama public diplomacy team.

Donna Oglesby, PDC on November 16, 2008 @ 11:18 am:
While I agree that the successful Obama political campaign could well model effective public diplomacy in the Obama administration, it cannot not simply be "e-politics." Equal attention must be paid to the well funded and long range efforts to create a ground game in each state. In PD that translates into thoughtful, culturally relevant, and empowered field operations in nations and regions abroad. Obama did not make the mistake of substituting technology for neighbor to neighbor personal outreach. He did not assume that primaries in each state would be the same or that politics was not truly local. He wove technology, local grassroots politics and a national message together as we must if we are to reclaim a vibrant public diplomacy platform in the new administration.

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