Saturday, February 11, 2012

Public Diplomacy and USG International Broadcasting

There's been much talk lately about the relationship between public diplomacy and USG non-military international broadcasting. As I see it, as a Foreign Service officer having been privileged to serve "in the field" for over twenty years (mostly in Eastern Europe, during the past century) the difference is this: FSOs talk to people in the flesh, face-to-face, whereas USIB, even now via the new social media, "communicates" to basically invisible, humanly little-known "target audiences" without individuality. I leave it up to you to decide on what is the more meaningful dialogue -- and best for the US national interest. A mixture of both? But, if so, what is the priority?

1 comment:

Christial Lemay said...

Good evening John, the most important word in your Blog is dialogue. I agree that FSOs have been and are still very much the right mean to discuss high level diplo issues. I agree that govt mass comunication have missed their mark in the past, can still be uni-directional and may often be percieved as missing their target.
Today though, we have to agree that social media offer many more opportunities to dialogue, seek and exchange ideas, opening bi/multi-directional comms channels to discuss with individuals and/or large groups,etc...
These days I think no decision maker can escape the importance the Web, social media, etc...have taken into our respective professional and personal activities.
In my view, the issue is not really who has priority but which audience you wish to focus onto the most.
Cheers
Christian