social media
A Gwich'in woman is using social media to get people speaking one of the most endangered languages in Canada. Although nearly 10,000 Gwich'in people live in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska, a United Nations study estimates just a few hundred fluent speakers of the Gwich'in language are left.
![Photo by Roel Wijnants | CC BY-NC 2.0](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/Twiplomat.jpg?itok=peHk951n)
Trending this week in PD News were stories about digital diplomacy.
Social media is changing "business as usual" for governments, opening up democratic processes, delivering services both to understand and surveil constituents, managing threats and conducting direct diplomacy. Even so, adoption of social media is slow and uneven, with vast differences both between and within states. As more and more governments move towards e-government, their use of social media will grow.
![Photo reprinted courtesy of IICD via Flickr Local partners' meeting in Zambia, by IICD](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/4445573438_c33f37f40a_o%20%281%29.jpg?itok=mkyk3DMw)
On the incorporation of social media into African diplomacy.
Recent years have seen a growing academic interest in the migration of MFAs (foreign ministries) to social media. However, the majority of digital diplomacy studies tend to focus on the activities of Western and North American MFAs. This Euro- and American-centric approach fails to recognize the fact that digital diplomacy is now a global phenomenon.
As the dust settles after the 2nd annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, media commentary outside of China has largely focused on President Xi Jinping’s opening statements about “cybersovereignty,” with scholars focusing on the suppressive censorship tactics that this policy is oft seen to represent in China’s domestic cyberspace.
President Barack Obama is not just reigning the United States. He also rules on Facebook. According to a new study by Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations and communications firm, Obama has the most Likes on Facebook of all world leaders.
Within the quietly thriving gay scene in India’s entertainment and financial capital, one thing appears to be common. “Everybody from the gay community is using Grindr,” Inder Vhatwar, a Mumbai fashion entrepreneur, said of the dating app geared toward gay men.