Information and Communication Technologies

Misreporting the Turkish Protests

In late May, protestors descended on Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. At first, there was a small sit-in over re-development plans that would have it, one of the few parks in European Istanbul. After months of unsuccessful petitioning to save the park, activists took to camping out there to prevent the…

Democracy and 21st Century Statecraft

March 18, 2013 Cultural Diplomacy public diplomacy Social Media 2 Comments

By Rebecca Woodward The recent presidential elections in Kenya served as a platform to showcase mobile technology as a medium for transparent and fair processes in a country troubled by election violence and fraud in the recent past. There are roughly six billion mobile phones in the world, in Kenya…

How Does Cultural Diplomacy Communicate? Let Me Count the Ways

February 7, 2013 Cultural Diplomacy Global Communication in the field public diplomacy 1 Comment

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, who delivered the annual Walter Roberts Lecture at George Washington University last Thursday, comes from a serious press and media background. She is the recipient of 10 News Emmy Awards and other awards in journalism for broadcast programs…

21st Century Visual Culture, NGOs, and Public Diplomacy

December 20, 2012 Cultural Diplomacy Global Communication public diplomacy 1 Comment

An early Christmas present arrived in the mail today – a new book called Sensible Politics: The Visual Culture of Nongovernmental Activism (Meg McLagan and Yates McKee, eds., Zone Books, 2012.) The “visual culture of nongovernmental activism” seems like an important topic for U.S. public diplomacy practitioners to consider. Even…

Tweeting in State

December 11, 2012 Global Communication public diplomacy Social Media 1 Comment

When the recent Diplopundit post and related news items came out about State Department revising its external communication clearance rules, a lot of people reacted with concern that State was either deliberately or merely blind-bureaucratically limiting its ability to communicate by imposing a new delay on digital communication, even on…

Opinion Leaders: Still the Most Important PD Audience.

October 4, 2012 Cultural Diplomacy Global Communication in the field public diplomacy No Comments

Note: First in a new Take Five blog post series The Office of U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Tara Sonenshine began several months ago to distribute summary PD activity highlights to interested members of the U.S. public. In a series of blog posts starting today, I’d like to showcase some of these…

Everybody’s Talking About World Press Freedom Day

May 3, 2012 Africa in the field public diplomacy 1 Comment

World Press Freedom Day – celebrated today, May 3, with the centerpiece UNESCO event held in Carthage, Tunisia – is one of those global phenomena, like soccer, that seizes Americans only peripherally. Yes, the main event last year was held in New York, and yes, U.S. organizations such as the…

A Proposal for Revitalizing International Broadcasting in the Information Age

April 20, 2012 Global Communication Middle East public diplomacy 1 Comment

Co-author: Shawn Powers, Georgia State University State-funded broadcasters face more competition for publics’ attention. With the wide proliferation of information sources globally, audiences have the option of accessing a multitude of news outlets while increasing their own engagement through two-way communications technologies. The growth of other international broadcasters, or state…

China, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, the Arab world, and the Vatican: New Books on Public Diplomacy Span the Globe.

April 18, 2012 Global Communication Middle East public diplomacy No Comments

New books on Public Diplomacy, December 2011 through April 2012 Take Five readers: Let us know if you like this resource, and we’ll make it a quarterly feature. 1) At the 2012 London Book Fair. Professor Zhao Qizheng is launching his two new books in English. They are Cross-Border Dialogue:…

Fear and Loathing in Development Journalism

April 14, 2012 Africa Global Communication public diplomacy Social Media 3 Comments

Three items on development journalism in Africa came across my radar screen yesterday, and it was fascinating to read such a diversity of views. It seems that harnessing media in the service of development has been used, at times, as a strategy to repress free speech and democracy, and yet…

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Tag: Information and Communication Technologies

Misreporting the Turkish Protests