Public Diplomacy and the Social Media.
Over the recent years, the rise of social media has been phenomenal. Social media consists of web based and mobile technologies that are used to turn communication into interactive discussion.
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as
“A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”[i]
Social media is for social interaction set beyond social communications. It is enabled by universally accessible communication techniques, which has fundamentally changed the way people interact with each other locally and worldwide.
Social media takes place on many different levels. Kaplan and Haelein created a classification scheme for different types of social media.[ii]
– Collaborative projects: wikipedia
– Blogs (web and social and micro): twitter
– Content communities: youtube
– Social networking sites: facebook
– Virtual game worlds: world of warcraft
– Virtual social worlds: second life
We can see that the vast use of social media (of whichever form) has made a big impact in our lives. With the new mobile technologies, using social networking sites and accessing blogs and the internet has become an extremely easy process.
Aside from the fun, gossip and passing time notion of such media, it is used for publicity and politics. Celebrities use it to advertise themselves, as to companies so as to try and get a larger fan base and recognition.
Facebook, being the most famous example, began in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg from his Harvard University dorm room. He wished to create a site where people to connect and interact within the university. Little did he know this small idea would expand globally and gather over 800million[iii] users. In 2011 Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and agencies to help them develop and promote their brand on Facebook. This began by invited a few elected advertising leaders and branched out to be involved in campaigns for programs such as American Idol and Top Gear.
Over the recent years, we have witnessed just how influential social media can be. In 2009 the Iranian Presidential campaign protests were shown worldwide due to the publics use of social media. Again with the Arab Spring, we saw the true realities of what the citizens were suffering.
It is fair to say that the news coverage informs us and gives us an up to date report on the issues in foreign states, however since the use of social media, we can see the sides that the media does not want to show. Whether this is for bias or safety reasons, the social media gives the public a true real life encounter of the harsh realities that are occurring across the world. It also allows the public to get 24/7 updates on the situation abroad as a pose to only at the set television/radio news times.
In the sense of public and/or cultural diplomacy, social media can be seen to play a major role. Social media gives the opportunity to display and promote public/cultural diplomacy at such a vast level.
The video posted below gives more of an in depth insight to just how public diplomacy works in an era social media…
[i] Kaplan, Andreas M.; Michael Haenlein (2010). “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”. Business Horizons 53. p59–68
[ii] http://www.thesocialmediaguys.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/03/CompleteGuidetoSocialMedia.pdf
[iii] Adam Ostrow (September 22, 2011). “Facebook Now Has 800 Million Users”. Mashable.
Public and Cultural Diplomacy 3 
Thank you for this blog entry.
The impact of social media on international politics is indeed immense. Maybe we can say that states, as a response to globalisation and the explosion of social media, therefore ought to increase their expenditure on public diplomacy efforts, to make themselves look attractive to foreign audiences, as argued by Joseph Nye. When states have such little control over the information released to the world, they may have to protect themselves and their image more than ever before through public diplomacy.
Supcr-herzliehen DANK für diese TOLLE Seite! Vor allem die Neuerung mit den Taufliedern PLUS Noten ist ein absoluter Hit! Weiter so! Liebe Grüße — AlexPS: Vielleicht wäre es auch noch eine nette Sache eine eigene Rubrik mit Mustern von Taufheften zu erstellen. So hat man gleich viele Ideen auf einem Blick. Wenn ihr wollte, kann ich euch meins (ist gerade in Arbeit) nach Fertigstellung zukommen lassen.
I find this blog very intesresting overall. It is very intuitive and well structured. However, in the blog, you talk about the different types of social media and how celebreties and companies make use of it to advertise themselves. Also, ‘The Arab Spring”, as you have mentioned, provides a good example of the importance of social networks in today’s twenty first century. Nevertheless, I disagree with your comparison between TV/Radio news and social networks, claiming that the latter provides always the true picture of real life. After all, I still believe that the traditional TV channel news is much more reliable in terms of sources and informations. But that could be counter argued of course. Finally, I think you should elaborate a little bit more on your final paragraph, because really it is what your question is about “Public Diplomacy and Social Media”, therefore, you should try to make a stronger link between the two. Try to talk about how the two merge together.