Eleven German journalists visited the BBG yesterday as a part of the RIAS Berlin Commission’s spring exchange program. The participants met with IBB Director Richard Lobo and attended a VOA editorial meeting. They then met with VOA Associate Director of Language Programming Rebecca MacMenamin and discussed topics such as finding foreign audiences, the federal government’s role in US international broadcasting, and how the agency creates new language services.

Recent Culture Posts have highlighted “relationalism,” which emphasizes relations, and by extension, networks. The term network is appearing with greater frequency in all things related to public diplomacy. It seems only a few years ago that Jessica T. Matthew was lamenting the fate of state actors as entrenched hierarchies in “Power Shifts".

Wave 6, the latest edition of social media research by Universal McCann media agency, highlights an interesting difference in various nations’ attitudes towards privacy in social networking sites. Of course, any conclusions based on opinion polls tend to oversimplify the image of reality. However, the study seems to provide additional arguments in favour of two theses. Firstly, social media play an important role in terms of building social capital in countries where other forms of self-expression are limited.

As the U.S. observes the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, a key question remains: Why was there almost no accountability for journalists and pundits who went along with George W. Bush’s deceptions. The answer can be found in the cover-ups of the Reagan-Bush-41 era, writes Robert Parry.

APDS Blogger: Michael Duffin

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now.”

“Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.”

APDS Blogger: Danni Li

BEIJING--

Consider this statement: “The great body of citizens are refusing to wait until negotiations are over or policies are acted upon or even determined. They demand to know what is going on and to have an opportunity to express their opinions at all stages of diplomatic proceedings.”