Meredith Deane is a CPD Contributing Researcher on The State of Mobiles & Social Media in Public Diplomacy project. She is a first year student in the Master’s of Public Diplomacy program at USC. She earned her B.A. at USC in 2011, double majoring in International Relations (concentrations: International Politics & Security Studies; Foreign Policy Analysis) and Public Relations. She is interested in public activation – engaging audiences through various media platforms, strategies and campaigns – and the use of new media technologies in effective government public diplomacy programs, as well as international policy implementation. She is also interested in ethical journalism and hopes to forward its mission of informing the public in her future professional pursuits. She was particularly motivated to do so after witnessing the power of information and conversation (especially listening) to remedy social fragmentation on a trip to Cambodia in 2009 to interview survivors (both perpetrators and victims) of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide.