The Impact of New Media on Diplomatic Practice: An Evolutionary Model of Change
In: The Hague Journal of DiplomacySearch for other papers by Cristina Archetti in
Current site
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Summary
Based on a range of interviews with foreign diplomats in London, this article explains the considerable variation in the way that communication technologies both affect diplomatic practices and are appropriated by diplomats to pursue the respective countries’ information-gathering and public outreach objectives. The study shows that London, as an information environment, is experienced differently by each of the diplomats and embassy actors. The analysis elaborates a model of the ‘communication behaviour’ of foreign diplomats, based on an evolutionary analogy: foreign diplomats in the context of the British capital, within their respective embassy organizations, can each be compared to the members of a species that is attempting to survive in a natural environment. The nuances highlighted by the explanatory model challenge the largely homogeneous and generalized nature of current debates about media and diplomacy, as well as public diplomacy.
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1)
Harold Nicolson, The Evolution of the Diplomatic Method (London: Constable, 1954), p. 2.
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2)
David Paull Nickles, Under the Wire: How the Telegraph Changed Diplomacy (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
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4)
W. Phillips Davison, ‘News Media and International Negotiation’, Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 1974, pp. 174–191.
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6)
Johanna Neumann, ‘The Media’s Impact on International Affairs, Then and Now’, SAIS Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 1996, pp. 109-123.
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7)
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).
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8)
Neumann, ‘The Media’s Impact on International Affairs’, p. 111.
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9)
For instance, Gordon S. Smith, ‘Reinventing Diplomacy: A Virtual Necessity’, United States Institute of Peace Virtual Diplomacy Report (Washington, DC: USIP, 2000); and Sheryl J. Brown and Margarita S. Studemeister, ‘Virtual Diplomacy: Rethinking Foreign Policy Practice in the Information Age’, Information and Security, vol. 7, 2001, pp. 28-44.
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10)
Evans H. Potter (ed.), Cyber-Diplomacy: Managing Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century (London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002).
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11)
For example, see Patricia A. Karl, ‘Media Diplomacy’, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, vol. 34, no. 4, 1982, pp. 143-152; Eytan Gilboa, ‘Media Diplomacy: Conceptual Divergence and Applications’, The Harvard Journal of Press Politics, vol. 3, no. 3, 1998, pp. 56–75; and Eytan Gilboa, ‘Media Diplomacy in the Arab–Israeli Conflict’, in E. Gilboa (ed.), Media and Conflict: Framing Issues, Making Policy, Shaping Opinions (Ardsley NY: Transnational Publishers, 2002), pp. 193-211.
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14)
Jan Melissen (ed.), The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005).
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17)
Hölsti, ‘The Problem of Change in International Relations’, p. 2.
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18)
Hölsti, ‘The Problem of Change in International Relations’, pp. 7-9.
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19)
Colin Hay, Political Analysis: A Critical Introduction (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), p. 113.
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20)
Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge: Polity, 1984).
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23)
For instance, Eytan Gilboa, ‘Mass Communication and Diplomacy: A Theoretical Framework’, Communication Theory, vol. 10, no. 3, 2000, pp. 275-309; Chanah Naveh, ‘The Role of the Media in Foreign Policy Decision-Making: A Theoretical Framework’, Conflict and Communication Online, vol. 1, no. 2, 2002, available online at http://www.cco.regener-online.de/2002_2/pdf_2002_2/naveh.pdf.
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24)
Eytan Gilboa, ‘Diplomacy in the Media Age: Three Models of Uses and Effects’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, vol. 12, no. 2, 2001, pp. 1-28.
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25)
See, for example, Philip Seib, Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy (London: Praeger, 1996), as well as the following ‘CNN effect’ literature and its critiques: Steven Livingston, ‘Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Intervention’, Research Paper R-18, 1997, Joan Shorenstein Center, Press-Politics, available online at http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/publications/papers/research_papers/r18_livingston.pdf; Warren P. Strobel, Late-Breaking Foreign Policy: The News Media’s Influence on Peace Operations (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997); and Piers Robinson, The CNN Effect: The Myth of News Media, Foreign Policy and Intervention (London: Routledge, 2002).
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29)
Ronald J. Deibert, Parchment, Printing and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order Transformation (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), chapter 1.
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32)
Deibert, Parchment, Printing and Hypermedia, p. 31, my emphasis.
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36)
Cristina Archetti, Explaining News: National Politics and Journalistic Cultures in Global Context (New York: Palgrave, 2010).
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45)
John Shaw, The Ambassador: Inside the Life of a Working Diplomat (Herndon: Capital Books, 2006).
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The Impact of New Media on Diplomatic Practice: An Evolutionary Model of Change
In: The Hague Journal of DiplomacySearch for other papers by Cristina Archetti in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Summary
Based on a range of interviews with foreign diplomats in London, this article explains the considerable variation in the way that communication technologies both affect diplomatic practices and are appropriated by diplomats to pursue the respective countries’ information-gathering and public outreach objectives. The study shows that London, as an information environment, is experienced differently by each of the diplomats and embassy actors. The analysis elaborates a model of the ‘communication behaviour’ of foreign diplomats, based on an evolutionary analogy: foreign diplomats in the context of the British capital, within their respective embassy organizations, can each be compared to the members of a species that is attempting to survive in a natural environment. The nuances highlighted by the explanatory model challenge the largely homogeneous and generalized nature of current debates about media and diplomacy, as well as public diplomacy.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 4008 | 708 | 88 |
| Full Text Views | 662 | 102 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 837 | 211 | 4 |