• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.117-119
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• 2021

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.120-122
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• 2021

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.57-79
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• 2021

Drawing on the theories of mediated public diplomacy, intermedia agenda-building, and homophily, this study aims to compare the effectiveness of the public diplomacy efforts made by the Saudi and Qatari governments during the Gulf diplomatic crisis. The study examines the respective international agenda-building influence of the state-sponsored media from the two competing Gulf states on the regional and international media's coverage of the crisis. Results show that, compared to Saudisponsored Al Arabiya, Qatari-sponsored Al Jazeera was more effective in shaping the agendas of the regional and international media. Whereas Al Arabiya has a weak first-level agenda-building influence and a moderate-to-strong influence at the second and the third levels, Al Jazeera demonstrates a strong agenda-building influence on the foreign media outlets at all of the three levels. We also analyze the impact of political proximity and the language of the media content (English or Arabic) on the agenda-building relationships. Still, the results suggest that, compared to Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera was more successful in shaping the agendas of the regional and international news media-no matter where they are based in the allied or the opposing countries. Also, we observe a higher level of consistency between Arabic- and English-language content in Al Jazeera.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2020

There is great confusion over what constitutes public diplomacy (PD), who its actors are, and the relevance of non-state actors. In the Korean context, in addition to the general fuzziness of the concept, linguistic peculiarities of the terms gonggong and gongjung both of which refer to public, waegyo, which is interchangeably used for international affairs, foreign policy and diplomacy, and juche which is simultaneously used for actor and agent, add more layers of confusion. While the term PD in Korea is based almost entirely on Western conceptualization, these linguistic peculiarities prevent fruitful conversations among scholars and practitioners on PD. Against this background, this research note explores and addresses conceptual ambiguities that pertains to PD and the policy discourse on the topic, particularly on non-state PD in Korea. The paper draws on Korean government's PD-related policy documents and Diplomatic White Papers and all relevant academic articles found in Korean-language journals registered in the Korean Citation Index (KCI), which are analysed to gain an understanding of the PD-related policy discourse in Korea.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2020

In 2015, the State Council of South Korea finalized its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by "37% from the business-as-usual (BAU) level" by 2030 across all the economic sectors. Of that reduction, 4.5% will be achieved overseas by leveraging Emission Trading Systems (ETS) aided by international cooperation. In line with this, considering both the demand for and supply of the carbon market increased after the Paris agreement, the importance of public diplomacy in negotiating climate change actions also rose. This study aimed to analyze the impact of international discussions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on domestic policies and the types of public diplomatic climate change policies pursued by different government agencies, and draw implications from them. This study attempted to find implications from the Korean government's public diplomacy on climate change for developing countries. Lessons learned regarding Korea's public diplomacy would provide a practical guidance to the Asian developing countries, which are suffering from environmental crisis at a phase of rapid economic growth.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-35
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• 2021

Where government communication in the early 20^th century fell under the umbrella term, "propaganda," the post-WWII era saw a paradigm fracture into public affairs for domestic audiences, public diplomacy for foreign audiences, and psychological operations for hostile audiences. The continued diffusion of the Internet, however, has blurred such distinctions, mending this fractured paradigm. Based on in-depth interviews, this study typologizes government communication to contextualize how various tactics functions within the 21^st century digital media ecology, through an "Information Intervention" taxonomy. In an age where state-sponsored disinformation and computational propaganda are tantamount threats, this paper elucidates the field's fundamental concepts by articulating who communicates with what audience, in what manner, with what intent, and with what desired outcomes.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.234-263
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• 2020

This study aims to assess the quality of the EU's public diplomacy efforts through social media. Specifically, this research explores the headquarters of European public diplomacy (European External Action Service, EEAS) and its subordinate agent (EU Delegation to South Korea, EUDK). The main research question is "how coherently and effectively does the EU execute public diplomacy strategies in the third countries?'' This study employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches―the former for the results presentation and the latter for the results interpretation. The results are summarized in two points. First, both the EEAS and the EUDK maintained an objective position by posting only neutral perspectives on their social media. Second, the narratives of the main actors were the same, but the main themes were different according to their contexts. The analysis discusses the effectiveness of the EU's strategic narratives by focusing on measuring message reception. Its limited findings were that social media postings could not induce the audiences' active discussion of the EU's diplomatic performances. The conclusion suggests that the EU should identify the expectations from its global counterparts and use these to forge the Union's strategic narratives.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-69
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• 2019

Over the last couple of years, digital diplomacy has become a fascinating area of research among Mass Communication, Peace and Conflict Studies, and International Affairs scholars. Social media and new technology open up new avenues for governments, individuals, and organizations to engage with foreign audiences. However, developing countries' governments are still lacking in the realization of the potential of social media. This study aims to analyze the usage of social media (Facebook & Twitter) by the two biggest countries in South Asia (Pakistan and India). I selected 10 government officials' social media accounts including prime ministers', national press offices', military public relations offices', public diplomacy divisions', and ministries of foreign offices' profiles. The study relies on quantitative content analysis and a comparative research approach. The total number of analyzed Twitter tweets (n=1,015) and Facebook posts (n=1,005) include 10 accounts, five from each country. In light of Kent and Taylor's (1998) dialogic communication framework, the results indicate that no digital engagement and dialogue occurs between government departments and the public through social networking sites. Government departments do not engage with local or foreign audiences through digital media. When comparing both countries, results reveal that India has more institutionalized and organized digital diplomacy. In terms of departmental use of social media, the digital diplomacy division and foreign office of India is more active than other government departments in that nation. Meanwhile, Pakistan's military public relations office and press office is more active than its other government departments. In conclusion, both countries realize the potential of social media in digital diplomacy, but still lack engagement with foreign audiences.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.53-80
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• 2022

Despite an astronomical budget for public diplomacy, China is experiencing successive failures in public diplomacy. The unfavorable feeling towards China is increasing every year in the world and China needs a new public diplomacy to resolve anti-Chinese sentiment. Here, we found that viewers of Korean-Chinese student YouTuber Deemd formed a friendly image towards China after watching Deemd's China vlog. Therefore, in this study, we tried to examine whether Deemd's vlogs affect the improvement of China's country image theoretically guided by the theory of mere exposure effect. In addition, we examined whether the improvement of a country image causes the 'Halo effect' that leads to an increase in the intention to visit China and purchase intention of Chinese products. It is expected that the results of this study can serve as a new digital media diplomacy solution for countries, including China, that want to capture the hearts of foreign public in the era of a new digital public diplomacy.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.75-116
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• 2021

This study argues that scholars lack an adequate conceptualization of the strategic use of social media framing by Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) during crises. As a theoretical starting point, this article employs the concept of soft disempowerment to suggest that MFAs may use online framing to limit an adversary's range of possible actions during a crisis by depicting that adversary as violating norms and values deemed desirable by the international community. Next, the article introduces the concept of mutually assured delegitimization (MAD), which suggests that actors may call into question one another's adherence with certain norms and values during crises, which results in the mutual depletion of soft power resources. Importantly, this article proposes a novel, methodological approach for the analysis of individual tweets during crises. To illustrate its methodological and conceptual innovations, the study analyzes tweets published by the MFAs of the United States (US) and Russia during the Crimea crisis and demonstrates that both MFAs used Twitter to negatively frame each other by calling their morals into question, which resulted in MAD.