The term Digital Literacy reflects the immense impact the digital revolution has had on our lives. While some originally thought that the digital world would be separate from the physical one, it is now clear that the digital world is but an extension of the physical one. Revolutions that start on-line impact the physical world... Continue Reading →
A Twitter Profile of Israel’s Mission to the United Nations
Last week I attempted to visualize world embassies to the United Nations in New York as a social network. Using a sample consisting of the twitter accounts of 56 embassies to the UN, my analysis explored which embassies are the most popular in this network, which embassies are most connected to other embassies and which... Continue Reading →
The United Nation’s Social Network
Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post in which I attempted to illustrate and analyze the social network of the world's foreign ministries. This analysis was the result of a series of interviews I have been conducting with foreign policy practitioners at the Israeli foreign ministry who told me that they use social media... Continue Reading →
When the E.U. realized the potential of digital diplomacy
Like most nations and international organizations, the European Union has eagerly adopted social media over the past two years. And like most foreign ministries, the E.U.'s digital diplomacy apparatus amounts to a social media empire consisting of countless twitter channels and Facebook profiles. On twitter, one can choose to follow the E.U.'s Foreign Policy Service,... Continue Reading →
Why Michele Obama’s tweet matters
On May 8th, First Lady Michele Obama posted a Selfie on her twitter account holding a sign with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls. Over the last week, public response to this Selfie has ranged from enthusiastic to hostile with some journalists attacking the First Lady for taking pictures rather than taking action to rescue the 250 Nigerian... Continue Reading →
Exclusive interview with Gal Rudich, Head of new media section at the Israeli foreign ministry’s Digital Diplomacy Unit
Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to further my study of Israel's Digital Diplomacy by interviewing Gal Rudich, Head of New Media Section at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Gal spoke to me about the Israeli digital diplomacy model, how the ministry coordinates digital diplomacy messages at the ministry and embassy level, how the ministry... Continue Reading →
The Social Network of Foreign Ministries
I have often wondered if foreign ministries follow each other on twitter, and if so, do foreign ministries regard twitter as an important source of information. After all, by monitoring the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs' twitter channel world governments can gather important information regarding events shaping this country's future as they unfold. Likewise, by... Continue Reading →
The medium is NOT the message in Digital Diplomacy
I recently became interested in learning which language rules supreme in the world of twiplomacy. While English has long since replaced French as the Lingua franca in the physical world, I was not so sure it had done so in the digital one. I therefore compiled a sample of 84 countries analyzing the languages they... Continue Reading →
America’s Selfie: How the United States portrays itself on its Digital Diplomacy channels
Two months ago I concluded a three week exploratory study of Digital Diplomacy channels operated by foreign ministries. The study aimed to explore differences between official twitter channels and Facebook profiles and answer the age old question- are different messages used in different mediums? While three weeks are a relatively short period in the physical... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy- What Is It Good For?
During my travels through cyberspace, I recently came across an article published by Jimmy Leach in August of 2013 on the Huffington Post. In this article, titled "Add Digital Diplomacy to the Long List of Failures Over Syria", Mr. Leach claims that in the wake of the Syrian civil war, "digital diplomacy never looked so... Continue Reading →