Comments on: Public Diplomacy: Trying to Pigeonhole Deutsche Welle’s Chinese Department

By: Public Diplomacy: “… then Social Media it is” | Justrecently's Weblog

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:41:29 +0000

[...] Retired”, April 9, 2012 » State Dept moves, Washington Post, March 14, 2012 » Trying to Pigeonhole DW, Febr 19, 2012 » David Ensor, not familiar, Sept 9, 2011 » Open Standards, Berners-Lee, Nov 22, [...]

By: justrecently

justrecently — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:38:15 +0000

The four positions may be simplistic - and I'll keep watching if and how you will re-arrange them -, but they are apparently helpful in categorizing forein broadcasters, for example. That's how I gave the paradigm a try. As for the Voice of America, even dissidents, at least Roy Medvedev (now a Putin supporter, I believe) disapproved of the hardline approach the Voice took during the Reagan years. But as far as the audience, rather than the CPSU is concerned, most of them probably felt that Willis Conover's Jazz Hour was genuine cultural relations (even if it was practically one-way, rather than mutual). That said, one may argue that at least in part, it was actually meant to be nation branding. Maybe that's what it inevitably becomes, once a cultural-relation approach resonates strongly with the audience. Category 4 may fit too many different sizes though. After all, advocating values can hardly count as war (even if those who dislike the values in question may feel that way).

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:32:10 +0000

Really interesting post. The four positions are very simplistic but I think they do capture positions that recur in debates about public diplomacy type activities. For real existing organizations there may be balance between different positions so arguments and positions recur – for instance in American Cold War broadcasting. One aspect of this is that you might think that you are doing cultural relations but are seen by the people on the receiving end as actually doing politcal warfare – at least from the point of view of governments.

I was thinking about picking up the question of international broadcasting on my own blog.

Regards

Robin

By: justrecently

justrecently — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:27:06 +0000

Ich musste mir meine Sockenpuppen immer selber basteln…

By: Meine Omas Sockenpuppe

Meine Omas Sockenpuppe — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:28:20 +0000

Objectivity rulez!

By: justrecently

justrecently — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:26:37 +0000

Corrected – thanks!

By: john brown

john brown — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:52:10 +0000

Sir, The Brown to whom you refer has the first name of Robin, not John. I did have the pleasure of citing Robin’s article in my Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review. Best, John Brown