Existing analyses of China’s soft power coverage by the media largely focus on individual soft power activities, and rarely study media coverage of comprehensive soft power projection as a whole. ...This study shines new light on soft power narratives through a content analysis of its components, actors, information sources, and themes from 2010 to 2019. This study has provided a deeper and more holistic understanding of China’s soft power narratives in its attempts to address negative perceptions and build a positive image. The major findings reveal that Chinese media focus on achievements, weaknesses, and potentials as themes, and their attention has shifted from culture and domestic information sources to economy and non-Chinese information sources in the two periods: 2010–2016 and 2017–2019. The analysis of this paper indicates a trend toward a more balanced portrayal of China’s soft power initiatives. It also presents China’s growing confidence and self-assurance in soft power coverage. However, given the role of the state-run media outlets as instruments of the state’s public diplomacy strategy, the media coverage might reflect a selective representation of soft power to engage with international audiences more effectively.
The image of a nation is crucial in the conduct of international relations. As a rising power, China is increasingly concerned about its image, due to which it is increasingly investing into its ...public diplomacy. Public diplomacy, broadly understood as a country's engagement and communication with foreign publics, has become one important part of China's overall diplomacy in recent years. This article introduces the Chinese debates on public diplomacy. In doing so, it helps to better understand how China sees itself in the world (mainly misunderstood), how China perceives the international environment (potentially hostile), and how China wants to be seen by the outside world (as a friendly, peaceful, and reliable partner). Furthermore, this article demonstrates that in China, public diplomacy is understood more as an instrument to fulfill strategic and functional purposes and less as an instrument of mutuality. Although the non-Chinese discourse focuses on mutuality, exchange, and reciprocal communication, China is more concerned with getting its message out and convincing the world of its benign intentions.
The dissemination of South Korean culture in Indonesia becomes prominent as it attracts lot of people and creates many fans. The penetration of its spread in Indonesia is supported by some ...institutions which emphasizes on advocating and developing the South Korean culture and practice. The phenomena are not incidentally occurred, but it is well-managed by the government of South Korea as the advocate country of public diplomacy in collaboration with the target country which is Indonesia in achieving this mission. Public diplomacy is positioned as an approach of the advocate country to influence the public of foreign country to support the advocate’s country position which can be implemented through their state and non-sate actors in achieving mutual benefits. This paper observes the practice, impact, and challenges of South Korea’s public diplomacy in Indonesia based on Communication Pyramid Public Diplomacy framework. The findings show that the practice of public diplomacy allows cultural hybridity and increase enthusiasm of Indonesian in understanding the culture of the advocate country while the challenge is asymmetric direction between state and non-state actors of South Korea in the implementation of public diplomacy.
This article argues that the institutional practices and journalistic ethics on RT, formerly Russia Today, have been influenced by the Soviet kontrpropaganda tradition, a defence mechanism against ...anti-communist narratives. RT’s post-Soviet institutional structure has enabled the continuation of inherently ‘defensive’ practices in a way that they form a ‘countering’ ethic on the network. While kontrpropaganda informs the journalistic culture of RT’s Russian staff, its international journalists are socialised into it. This article uses historical texts, archival materials and interviews with current and former journalists of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya network to examine how these defensive practices have become an everyday norm. In their strive for broadening the audience and for changing public opinion in the West, RT’s staff adopts reactive, patriotic or legitimising practices. The countering ethic on RT informs the journalists’ scramble for legitimacy not only of Russia as a country but also of RT as their employer. By analysing the underpinnings that organise the work of RT journalists, the article sheds light on broader problems of countering as a status-seeking effort in the international media ecosystem and contributes to ongoing research on self-censorship and conspiracy theories.
The European Union (EU) is responsible for important public diplomacy programmes, including Erasmus+. Most European countries engage in activities to enhance their international image parallel to the ...efforts of the EU itself. By comparing the public diplomacy activities of the USA, as the founder of public diplomacy, and those of the EU, this paper aims to identify the EU’s distinctive features in its image-enhancing endeavours. The paper concludes that the EU and the USA often show that they hold different values, ones that make them more attractive to foreign publics. The paper also notes the soft power held by EU member states continues to be much stronger than the effects of the EU’s public diplomacy activities in boosting their image.
A partir de la interrogante ¿en qué medida la comunidad valenciana ha aprovechado el vino de Alicante para promover su imagen internacional, su prestigio, sus exportaciones y su propuesta turística?, ...desarrollamos un estudio del concepto de enodiplomacia desde la opinión de los productores alicantinos, la Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) vinos de Alicante, docentes e investigadores del grado en Gastronomía de la Universidad de Alicante, divulgadores expertos y el análisis de diversas campañas sobre los vinos de Alicante. Se constatan diferencias entre las percepciones de estos actores en cuanto a los esfuerzos de promoción del vino alicantino, de defensa del territorio y su desarrollo sostenible; mismo modo, se identifican figuras que podrían considerarse embajadoras del vino en general, y de la “terreta” en particular. Se infiere la necesidad de ordenar un concepto como enodiplomacia desde diferentes aristas: gastronomía, turismo, ruralidad, producto y marca país.
After the Cold War, states focused their campaigns on self‐promotion on the global stage, so media diplomacy has been pushed to the periphery, hence not being a central research theme. However, the ...geopolitical clashes over Kosovo and the war in Ukraine have repositioned the role of media diplomacy in international politics. This paper aims to analyze Kosovo's media diplomacy in the following key moments: at the time of the declaration of independence (2008), and during the Russian aggression in Ukraine (2022). Data were collected from global media such as CNN, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and The New York Times, which have given space to Kosovo’s political actors and influential global politicians. The US president Bush was the example of the enormous media coverage in 2008. Messages of these communications were analyzed using the framing method. The results show that media diplomacy revived in three cases: before and after Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008, and again in 2022, with the fear that the Russian scenario for Ukraine would be followed by Serbia against Kosovo. Also, media diplomacy today establishes communications between countries with no diplomatic relations and even between countries with strained relationships.
Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age Bjola, Corneliu; Cassidy, Jennifer; Manor, Ilan
The Hague journal of diplomacy,
04/2019, Letnik:
14, Številka:
1-2
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Summary
As data fast become the 'new oil', the opportunities for public diplomacy to grow as a field of practice are real and game-changing. Drawing on social informatics research, this article seeks ...to advance our understanding of how digital technologies shape the context in which public diplomacy operates by reshaping the medium of public communication, blurring the boundary between foreign and domestic affairs and empowering new actors. Despite inevitable challenges, the future of public diplomacy in the digital age remains bright, as digital technologies create tremendous opportunities for public diplomacy to build stronger, more diverse and more enduring bridges between offline and online communities.
Turkey has vastly increased the scale of its investment in public diplomacy tools. Although Turkey is considered one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, its media market is one of the ...fastest-growing in the world. In 2015, the Istanbul-based English-language TRT World was launched with the slogan ‘where news inspires change’, The channel promised to provide impartial coverage of global news, with its experienced journalists addressing global audiences. In this study, we investigate the interplay between public diplomacy and editorial policies at TRT World. After conducting in-depth interviews with TRT World journalists, we argue that the channel has shifted its style from being Turkey’s public diplomacy tool into becoming the AKP’s voice to the world. By examining TRT World, this study provides a framework to understand how international broadcasters operate in countries where media freedom is restricted.
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