The Gaza conflict is being fought online, as well. Twitter is the main new front in a propaganda war between Israel and Hamas, but experts say the use of social media for public diplomacy is a double-edged sword. Social media can help convey a message to the public, but Twitter can be used carelessly, with a danger of overplaying things

War is not just about bombs and rockets. It's about words. That's been true for centuries, of course. But the public got a rude awakening this week about just how much those words can matter in the digital age when the Israel Defense Force live tweeted its strike that killed a Hamas leader. The military's live spin about the strike, and Hamas' response on a separate Twitter feed, have been called an unprecedented use of social media.

An unpopular military decided to use Twitter to broadcast, explain, and inform about its use of missiles to assassinate terrorist leaders in a hostile environment. Yes, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) live-tweeted its self-described “widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives.” The result is striking in its bluntness.

Blogs are gradually emerging as mainstream media in India... Niche blogs in the space of culture, technology, and hobbies wield significant clout. ‘Category blogging,’ as I may call it, actually presents an additional engagement opportunity for state-sponsored public diplomacy initiatives.

Blogs are gradually emerging as mainstream media in India. I previously mentioned in my own blog that the presence of a free press and recent proliferation of media outlets in India has relegated bloggers to the background, unlike in societies where there are limits to freedom of expression. This is true especially in the space of ‘issues’ where the ability of bloggers to influence public discourse in India seems to be limited by being ‘somewhat unnecessary’.

As temperatures drop across the East Coast, where the clean up efforts from Super Storm Sandy are ongoing, stories of resilience are permeating online... When it comes to our election, we may be divided. But when our focus is rebuilding our communities, we are united. And this rebuilding effort is both amplified and orchestrated by social media.

As temperatures drop across the East Coast, where the clean up efforts from Super Storm Sandy are ongoing, stories of resilience are permeating online: tales of New York City Marathon runners shifting gears from the cancelled event to volunteer efforts in Staten Island, tales of moms in New Jersey organizing clothing and supply drives to help those in the cold and dark, tales of musicians gathering in Brooklyn to entertain volunteers.

Future prejudices of China will be born not in the columns of the print media and in the radio and TV reports, but in the mushrooming blogs and micro-blogs of the digital world... Future stability will depend not only on what happens in the real world, but also on what happens in the digital world.