Globally, Yoani Sánchez’s blog, is available in a score of languages and gets up to 14 million visits a month. Within Cuba, though, the dictatorship of Fidel and Raúl Castro has from the start sought to silence her and prevent other Cubans from reading what she calls her “little vignettes of reality.”

Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, is on Twitter. Known for making the occasional hilarious gaffe in a speech from time to time, the microblogging platform that is Twitter introduces new possibilities for Biden to throw out a bit of straight talk directly to the world.

The shift to online media, and in particular, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, represents the growing trend of people turning to online sources for news and world events. This presents a unique opportunity for Israel's public diplomacy to penetrate global public opinion.

The rock band Radiohead has made a move to join the world of social networking in China. The group has been critical of the Chinese government’s censorship in the past...but the band has started a page on the “weibo” site of Sina.com, which has been described as the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

The latest issue of PDiN Monitor delves into the concept of Film Diplomacy in China.

With the proliferation of information technology across all societies, people around the world are participating in shaping the political lives of their countries to an unprecedented degree. That drove us to an understanding that the United States government had to take a different approach to public diplomacy.

Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted for the first time, announcing the launch of a Vatican news information portal. Benedict’s tweet on Tuesday read: “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI”.