In an interesting article written by the Politico’s Victoria Esser on the use of social media in advancing U.S. public diplomacy, Esser explores the question of whether or not President Obama should use the same “technologies that helped him generate huge grass-roots support in his presidential campaign to build support for America on the world stage.” Although not mentioned in her article, the State Department has already made its own foray into “public diplomacy 2.0″ with the launch of its own social networking site, ExchangesConnect, and its blog, Dipnote.
How do you think these and other social media tools can be used to advance U.S. public diplomacy?
In late 2008, the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under James Glassman entered the social networking scene with their ExchangesConnect website. In addition to the ExchangesConnect website and their new blog Dipnote (which you mention) they also have a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. I think it’s too soon to say how these new technologies and communication tools will advance public diplomacy
An interesting case study on the use of these new public diplomacy/foreign affairs social networking and media tools is found with the much talked about Israeli New York Consulate Twitter press conference and subsequent updates about the current Israel-Gaza conflict.
You can read related information this new approach to diplomacy and foreign relations on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School CPD Blog here: http://tinyurl.com/a5dotv
dilomacy must be virtuous and prgressive