For the most part, Muslim Americans disavow Islamic extremism, are happy with the way things are going in the country and in their lives, and are about as religious and educated as the general American public. Those are a few of the lessons from a new report from the Pew Research Center...sparked, in part, by a desire to know whether recent concerns about home-grown terrorism and other pressures had led to increased alienation and anger among Muslim Americans and support for extremism.

Tags: united states, public diplomacy, public opinion, islam, religion, terrorism, al qaeda

Using music and culture as diplomatic tools to bring people together and foster mutual understanding, The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad is the premier 21st Century showcase of traditional American musical forms. To date, 155 musicians from 40 ensembles have toured with The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program visiting more than 100 countries on five continents.

Tags: united states, soft power, Cultural Diplomacy, government pd, public diplomacy, us department of state, music diplomacy

Culture Kitchen is a new Bay Area-based culinary school where women share their family recipes and insight into their cultural backgrounds. By exploring these access points in an intimate, hands-on setting, Sturges and Lopez think they can create valuable exchanges and interactions between different ethnic backgrounds.

Tags: united states, soft power, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, non-state pd, gastrodiplomacy, exchanges

DreamWorks Animation has become the second Hollywood studio to enter into a distribution agreement with China's top online video site, Youku.com. Youku said Monday that it had signed a deal with the Glendale-based animation studio to distribute the "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China, marking the first time that DreamWorks releases have been made available in that country through the Internet.

Tags: china, united states, soft power, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, new technology, non-state pd, film diplomacy, hollywood

The emergence of Weibo promotes public interaction to an unprecedented level and enables limitless discussions on topics like the bullet train crash and the scandal surrounding the Red Cross Society of China. Weibo serves as a watershed mark for China's media environment.

Tags: china, public diplomacy, social media, new technology, new media

The Consulate General of the Netherlands in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles and the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) are hosting ThinkBike Los Angeles, "a unique, bi-national bicycle promotion and design workshop." Teams of L.A. designers and community stakeholders will collaborate with the foreign experts on project proposals to meet L.A.'s needs as a growing bicycle-friendly city.

Tags: united states, government pd, public diplomacy, los angeles, exchanges, netherlands, transportation

Since 9/11, the documentation of conflict...often by civilians carrying camera-equipped mobile phones, whose footage can be viewed almost instantaneously across the globe—actually takes precedent in the public mind over context and analysis. In 2011, when history happens, it is more often than not a nonjournalist with a pocket camera, a blog or a Twitter account who files the initial dispatch.

Tags: united states, media, arab spring, public diplomacy, social media, new technology, non-state pd, crisis coverage, journalism

As anticorruption crusader Anna Hazare put an end to his 13-day hunger strike on Sunday, tens of thousands of citizens celebrated what many described as the triumph of his anticorruption movement. Bollywood also joined the celebrations. From superstar Amitabh Bachchan toBollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar, Twitter was flooded with posts congratulating the 73-year-old Gandhian activist.

Tags: public diplomacy, india, public opinion, social media, new technology, twitter, celebrity diplomacy