Facebook’s big stock offering on Wall Street must be followed by an intensive debate on Main Street about social media’s powerful impact on children, an expert on the topic says. Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, a think tank focusing on media and families, said the technology that Facebook represents is having “an enormous impact” on youngsters, families and schools worldwide.

Rio+Social brings together leaders in social media, technology, global issues, and sustainability at Rio+20, the United Nations conference on sustainable development taking place next month. Influencers, bloggers, innovators, policymakers, NGO representatives, and stakeholders are invited to attend and apply for accreditation at http://www.rioplussocial.com.

Where nations were once connected through emissaries and traders, they are now networked through millions of citizens by tools such as fibre optics... Information flows have become multidirectional with a multitude of media platforms that have mushroomed increasing direct communications, greater access to information, information sharing, and greater outreach.

The majority of U.S. embassies now use Twitter, a sign of the aggressive push by the State Department to bring diplomacy into the social media age. According to a new analysis from the Sunlight Foundation, 121 U.S. embassies have Twitter accounts and 54 do not.

“The challenges that Ambassador McFaul is facing in Russia demonstrate how U.S. embassies that participate in social media are vulnerable to backlash from their host country. However, it is clear that Twitter is has become a valuable mechanism to circumvent traditional media channels and foster a direct dialog between foreign individuals and the U.S. government."

American French Fry Brother," the nickname of an American study-abroad student, is now trending on Sina Weibo after he fed a homeless woman on the streets of Nanjing a packet of fries and some water..."Kindness has no borders," Sina Weibo said of Lu's act of philanthropy and McDonalds diplomacy, "Let kind hearts melt away indifference.

But the rapid-fire pace of social media helped to quickly undercut the official line on what had happened just hours after the agreement was announced, spurring journalists worldwide to follow up. Experts said it was the first time that the digital world has had such a strong sway. In the past, "it might have taken days or months. It wouldn't have taken minutes," said Nicholas Cull, a USC professor of public diplomacy.

Never.no announced that its Interactivity Suite (IS) is being used to incorporate social media into programming for Voice of America (VOA), the multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government...— a critical component of VOA's strategy of audience engagement