The China Internet Information Centre and the Southern Media Corporation has announced the 1st Golden Bauhinia International New Media Film Festival (GBINMFF) at the China National Convention Centre in Beijing. According to PRNewswire, GBINMFF aims to promote innovation in terms of content, production, delivery and distribution from "All Ages, All Cultures & All Media" amid the Internet era; and to establish a healthy eco-system for new media sectors to cultivate new talents and premium productions.

Last week, as news of Brexit broke, foreign ministries throughout the world took to social media to comment on the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The German foreign ministry responded by changing its Twitter profile picture/cover photo from an image of the foreign minister to the EU flag. [...] An intriguing question is how do MFAs use their Twitter profile pictures/cover photos. Are these used to promote the national brand, or to project a certain institutional image or perhaps to make political statements as was the case with the Germany’s foreign ministry?

In 2016 YFU announced the creation of a Virtual Exchange Initiative to expand on its mission to advance intercultural understanding, mutual respect, and social responsibility through educational exchanges for youth, families, and communities.The pilot program encourages online open dialogue among teenagers in the US and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

The organization Project Everyone wants you to tell them what you really, really want. Project Everyone, which aims to get the word out about the Sustainable Development Goals created by the UN last year, has created a video based on the 1996 Spice Girls hit “Wannabe.” [...] The group presents goals such as “end violence against girls,” “quality education for all girls,” and “end child marriage.”

New Zealand diplomats remain "sceptical of megaphone diplomacy'' but are increasingly making use of social media, although not in an "indiscriminate'' way. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade chief executive Dr Brook Barrington made that point in Dunedin yesterday in an opening address to more than 100 people, at the University of Otago's 51st annual foreign policy school. Dr Barrington's address was devoted to "The Art of Diplomacy in a Digital World''.

While working for a Turkish tech firm, Akil learned how to program for mobile phones, and decided to make a smartphone app to help Syrians get all the information they need to build new lives in Turkey. In early 2014, he and a friend launched Gherbtna, named for an Arabic word referring to the loneliness of foreign exile. [...] “Our ultimate dream for Gherbtna is to reach all refugees around the world, and help them.”

Foreign policy was once the bastion of the elites. In military, diplomatic and humanitarian affairs, nation-states and the small group of individuals and institutions that governed their actions used primarily kinetic and broadcast channels to influence the actions of others. Control was largely exerted through hierarchical structures, and collective action through industrial organizations. Digital technology has radically shifted this reality by flattening the operating environment in which global affairs is conducted.