digital diplomacy
Professor Robert Albro on the intersections between diplomacy, technology, and social media.
After Thailand's government was toppled by the military, the new leaders of the country began imposing control over the media, preventing the spread of information. Now, one news organization is figuring out a way to do its job. In May, the Thai military junta, the de facto rulers of the nation, began censoring the media. The military enacted a total media blackout, depriving the Thai people of access to news and forcing news channels, including international ones like CNN and BBC, to stop broadcasting, according to Mashable.
Most often associated with Alec Ross’s stint at the State Department as Senior Advisor for Innovation, diplomacy’s rush to better leverage the advantages of social media and mobile technologies by investing in ediplomacy and PD 2.0 is no secret. On his first day as new Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs last February, Richard Stengel made his position clear: social media are “transformational tools” and the State Department needs to move toward a “digital-first strategy.” Ambassadors now tweet regularly.
Burson-Marsteller’s report, Twiplomacy Study 2014, is an annual study that looks at the global use of Twitter by world leaders as they exercise Digital Diplomacy. According to this study, more than half of the world’s foreign ministers from every region of the world and their institutions are active on Twitter. The report discusses how Twitter is fostering "virtual diplomatic networks" as well as social marketing campaigns that rely heavily on Hashtag Diplomacy.
As ISIS make gains in Iraq and declare an Islamic caliphate, media activists embedded along the front lines and their global support networks, the media mujahedeen, valorize their achievements in HD video and Hollywood film style posters which are distributed via social media.
How public diplomats can counter the online presence of media mujahedeen.
Over the past week the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been used hundreds of thousands of times, often to distribute pictures claiming to show the effects the airstrikes. Some of the images are of the current situation in Gaza, but a #BBCtrending analysis has found that some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Despite the encouraging news that 63 girls and women have reportedly escaped the grips of Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group still holds the more than 200 schoolgirls it kidnapped in April captive. Meanwhile, in Chibok, the home of the schoolgirls whose April 14 kidnapping by the group sparked off the #bringbackourgirls campaign, things have not improved.