Xinhua's U.S. expansion is seen as an effort to burnish the country's image and build its brands here. A Pew Research Center poll earlier this year found that 43 percent of Americans saw China as a "serious problem."

The Guardian's overage became a crucial source of information for Egyptians themselves once the internet was switched back on. With local media sites often paralysed by the unrest, Guardian articles and the rolling live blog – much of which was translated into Arabic – provided vital detail about the latest political developments...in Tahrir and elsewhere.

Since 2008, under the leadership of the Obama Administration and direction of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the United States has actively advocated for a more networked society. The U.S. Department of State has coined this initiative, 21st Century Statecraft.

Earlier this week Chatham House put out the results of a survey looking at UK public attitudes to the coalition government’s foreign policy priorities. It’s a serious job – a public sample of over 2000 plus a sample of 843 opinion formers – that deserves some serious commentary...

When the Chinese government spends vast amounts in Africa to set up communications infrastructure for dictators to flood the populace with their messages, public diplomacy has a new dimension. China is also offering this same region a propaganda-free news service, at a vastly cheaper cost than traditional Western news services. This is a sign of soft power and strategic influence are now going online.

Who deserves credit for bringing the Republic of South Sudan into existence as the 193rd country in the United Nations? One strong candidate for acclaim is the phenomenon of celebrity activism led by Hollywood's paramount leading man, George Clooney. As might be expected, there continue to be ripples of outright dismissal of Clooney's efforts from the usual suspects.

The Chinese government has criticized unnamed "overseas media organizations" and said their reports that former President Jiang Zemin had died "are pure rumor." But instead of telling the world about the health of Jiang, Beijing responded by stonewalling and censoring the Internet to the extent that even information on the hospital where the former leader is being treated was blacked out.

A documentary about the 1994 Rwanda genocide, "Raindrops Over Rwanda," premieres online July 18. Nonprofit group Explore.org, which produced the documentary, will donate $1 for every Facebook "like" to Rwanda’s Kigali Genocide Memorial Center – up to $50,000. The Facebook page is run by a Rwandan genocide survivor who serves as a tour guide at the genocide memorial center.