"Public Diplomacy is the modern name for white propaganda directed chiefly at foreign publics".( Diplomacy, Theory and Practice 4th edition, G.R. Berridge, page 179) I would like to mention that public diplomacy is something similar to propaganda, but it is not the same thing. About recent events which shows the importance of public diplomacy i would like to mention about the spread of Islamist thinking, which was mainly focused on influencing the West. Especially after 9/11 events the opinion about Muslism was hugely damaged, Al-Qaeda and its header Usama Bin Laden, then the London underground bombings 07/07/07 where lots of innocent people died and also 11 march 2004 train bombings in Madrid , after these accidents the opinion about Muslims changed dramatically, the word "terrorism" or "terrorist" was linked only with Muslims , and i think these associations were hugely impact by Internet resources, Internet spread information quickly and because of internet and television many people learned information about what did terrorists do. But its clear that media shows what it wants to show, and it does not show what it is not in its interests, so therefore it is obvious that USA influenced the media and regulating media. After watching what Al-Qaeda with Usama Bin Laden did to twin towers in New York and also bombings in Madrid and later in London, changed many peoples thinking about Muslim world, majority of people when heard word Muslim or something related with it automatically had bad association with it. And its all work of Media, media created notorious opinion about Muslims. So what i wanted to say is , that Public diplomacy had played role in some dramatic developments , examples are shown above . "The sudden increase of the workload of information officers in Denmarks embassies, especially in Muslim states, following publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in early 2006, it is not difficult to imagine".( Diplomacy, Theory and Practice 4th edition, G.R. Berridge, page 189) Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten , the newspaper announced that that publication about Prophet Muhammad was an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam. After these posting in Danish newspaper the world Muslims started to protest against this magazine, and many Muslim countries called back their embassy representatives in Denmark. "Public Diplomacy" is what we call our propaganda; "propagand" is what the other side does. It remains true that this activity , the aim of which is to influence foreign governments by trying to win over their own people, varies enormously in both its character and its targets". ( Diplomacy, Theory and Practice, 4th edition, G.R. Berridge, page 190).
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ReplyDeleteAs much as I agree with you that the media played a crucial part in the way the "West" looks at the Islamic society since 9/11 and in creating a "terrorist paranoia", I think it's rather propagandistic to claim that the media was regulated by the US. One reason why public diplomacy has become so important in recent years is because the media, if you include the internet etc, is hardly to regulate. As for example the recent wikileaks publishment has shown: nothing stays undiscovered in the age of the internet. Therefore manipulation of the media is actually contra-productive for the public diplomacy of a country. Furthermore, if you look into the literature about American public diplomacy (e.g. "Diplomacy by other means" by Leonard) you will see that the public diplomacy of the US was largely directed towards the Islamic society, not towards the West itself. The aim was to create a favourable image of America in Islamic countries, not to accumulate anger against Muslims in the West. To what extend these efforts were successful is another story...
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