blogs

In 2010 former Lowy Institute research fellow Fergus Hanson published a forward-looking policy brief urging Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to catch up to the rest of the world, join the 21st century and get online. Social media, he argued, is only one aspect of digital diplomacy. 

CPD seeks to advance and enrich the study and practice of public diplomacy through its research, professional education, and public engagement.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the internet as a CIA project. During a speech at a media forum in St. Petersburg, he said Russia would have to "fight for its interests" online. New laws passed in the last few days show just how serious he was.

The Israeli blogosphere’s obsessive preoccupation with food is making veteran culinary writers reel. The Internet has become a flesh-eating plant that devours recipes in an insatiable frenzy. When you Google the word “recipe” in Hebrew − you get close to three million hits.

August 22, 2013

More than 160 of Singapore’s most popular news blogs went dark on June 8. The protest was a cry for help against regulatory changes that would effectively shut down independent online media in the city-state. The regulations are part of a quiet censorship that has become popular with Southeast Asian governments, which are increasingly wary of bloggers and social media activism. Bloggers worry that citizens aren’t aware of how effective this soft approach is, or of its far-reaching consequences.

On Wednesday, Robert Mugabe, will seek another term as Zimbabwean president in a rematch of the contentious 2008 election with challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. ut this time, 33 years after the 89-year-old first took office, the icon of the African independence era is being hounded by a creation of the Internet age. In March, a self-proclaimed disaffected insider of the ruling Zanu-PF party created the Facebook page of "Baba Jukwa".

It’s not uncommon for the Castro regime to accuse dissidents of being CIA agents or puppets of the U.S. government. Viral media attacks on Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez are not unique. However, the manner in which they attack Sánchez and other female dissidents, compared to their male counterparts, does seem unique.