How social media has affected the diplomacy? Discuss in the light of various phrases used in recent times such as "public diplomacy", "digital diplomacy", "crowd sourcing diplomacy" and so on.

Diplomacy is defined as the art of managing international relations in a sensitive and tactful way. Social media allows users to interact and communicate effectively with others. Public diplomacy is a mechanism through which a country communicates its foreign policy to its target audiences. Use of social media and new modes of information and communication technologies for reaching audiences is called digital diplomacy. Crowdsourcing is defined as a practice in which individuals or organizations use contributions from Internet users to obtain needed services or ideas. In recent years, social media has played a vital role in formulating a country’s policies. Social Media has not only increased the access to information for public but have also created an equilibrium in which public can participate in news gathering, and decision-making of the government. In fact, social media has changed the nature of political campaigning and has become the main driving force for change in diplomatic policies and communication.
For example, during the Brexit campaign, most of the people supported the “leave” campaign on the social media, and when the final results were declared, British voters had opted to leave the EU with 51.9% voting out. Another example is of social media like Facebook and Twitter playing revolutionary role in the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia by facilitating easy communication and interaction among participants of political protests. If we talk about our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, no doubt, the whole world is fan of his social media diplomacy. He uses Twitter to recognize the various achievements of Indians across the globe, to convey his greetings, and to reach out to his people, thus, presenting an excellent example of public diplomacy.  The recent example is when Indian Prime Minister congratulated Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on his 60th birthday on his Sina Weibo account.


Leave a Reply