social media
The Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry have been hard at work spreading Israel’s message in Operation Protective Edge for the last week in an effort that is mostly paying off, experts on public diplomacy in and out of the government said Sunday. “We see [public diplomacy] as a war front like any other,” Foreign Ministry Deputy Director-General for Communications and Public Diplomacy Arthur Koll explained.
In 2011 Achref Aouadi and his friends, who fought for “Bread, freedom and human dignity!” during the revolution, established I Watch, a youth watchdog fighting against corruption on all levels of society. “We declared Sunday 13 July as National Voter Registration Day, and it has been really viral across social media,” explains Aouadi.
![Picture courtesy of Creative Commons](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/Albro%20pic4_0_0.jpg?itok=MWrg6uDd)
Professor Robert Albro on the intersections between diplomacy, technology, and social media.
After Thailand's government was toppled by the military, the new leaders of the country began imposing control over the media, preventing the spread of information. Now, one news organization is figuring out a way to do its job. In May, the Thai military junta, the de facto rulers of the nation, began censoring the media. The military enacted a total media blackout, depriving the Thai people of access to news and forcing news channels, including international ones like CNN and BBC, to stop broadcasting, according to Mashable.
Most often associated with Alec Ross’s stint at the State Department as Senior Advisor for Innovation, diplomacy’s rush to better leverage the advantages of social media and mobile technologies by investing in ediplomacy and PD 2.0 is no secret. On his first day as new Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs last February, Richard Stengel made his position clear: social media are “transformational tools” and the State Department needs to move toward a “digital-first strategy.” Ambassadors now tweet regularly.
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Burson-Marsteller’s report, Twiplomacy Study 2014, is an annual study that looks at the global use of Twitter by world leaders as they exercise Digital Diplomacy. According to this study, more than half of the world’s foreign ministers from every region of the world and their institutions are active on Twitter. The report discusses how Twitter is fostering "virtual diplomatic networks" as well as social marketing campaigns that rely heavily on Hashtag Diplomacy.
As ISIS make gains in Iraq and declare an Islamic caliphate, media activists embedded along the front lines and their global support networks, the media mujahedeen, valorize their achievements in HD video and Hollywood film style posters which are distributed via social media.
![flickr.com_David R Networks](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/networks%20flickr%20image%20FINAL.jpg?itok=4tvccOda)
How public diplomats can counter the online presence of media mujahedeen.