NEW: CPD Perspectives, “Public Diplomacy and the Media in the Middle East”

The newest CPD Perspectives, titled "Public Diplomacy and the Media in the Middle East," is by former CPD Director Philip Seib. In this paper, Seib analyzes methods of engaging the region through various forms of media, focusing on how public diplomacy practice has shifted since the political upheavals of 2011. Specifically, he argues that international broadcasting, a public diplomacy tool used by the United States since World War II, will not work in the Middle East today.

Seib writes:

In the Arab world, broadcasters such as the BBC and CNN have long offered outsiders’ perspectives on events affecting the Middle East, while more recently Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and other Arab television channels have allowed people in the region to watch the events that affect them through Arab eyes. This paper examines changes in how the Arab world receives and dispenses public diplomacy since the uprisings that began in 2011. The Middle East media universe has expanded and become more sophisticated in ways that affect Arabs and others.

To read the full article, click here.

CPD Perspectives is a periodic publication from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and highlights scholarship intended to stimulate critical thinking about the study and practice of public diplomacy.