HFMA03135U FM, Public Diplomacy in the Era of Digital Media

Over the course of the past ten years public diplomacy has become an important part of Denmark’s foreign policy strategy.

Public diplomacy is a strategic communicative practice aimed at informing or influencing publics in other countries and broadening dialogue with their citizens and civil society. In this class we study the deployment of such practices and consider how public diplomacy has been transformed in the era of digital media, producing unique benefits and hurdles. We also compare public diplomacy to related concepts such as political communication and propaganda.

We study public diplomacy through the lenses of theory as well as selected case studies of the influence of the media from the past decade.

The growing importance of public diplomacy is explained by a series of national and international events as well as more general socio-cultural developments. For example we will look at how the global proliferation of networked and digital technologies has made non-state actors powerful agents in international relations and made states more susceptible to the effects of news, slander, and so-called ‘truthiness’ in the global arena.

We will consider in particular the Danish Cartoon Controversy (2005-2006) as well as Denmark’s involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001-2013) to study how public diplomacy became a vehicle for restoring the country’s international image following these events, which significantly changed the international perception of Denmark and were the main catalysts in the development of the current public diplomacy strategy of the Danish administration.

Finally we will look at the ways in which public diplomacy in the era of digital media also holds a great potential in facilitating new forms of intercultural dialogue and participation between people separated by geographic, social, and cultural divides.