During my time at the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia was preparing itself to join NATO as well as the European Union. The U.S. Congress was interested checking out the Latvians and the other prospective Alliance members, so our embassy experienced a pretty steady procession of senators and congressmen, as well as spouses and aides,…
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Next Wednesday (August 22), the Broadcasting Board of Governors overseeing five U.S.-funded international networks will announce it is re-christening itself the U.S. Agency for Global Media. That will be a significant event in the nearly quarter of a century since the BBG was established by the Administration and Congress in 1994. “New Name, Same Mission — Come…
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The lid has been lifted on at least part of Russia’s “Internet Research Agency” in St. Petersburg as disaffected Internet trolls have been telling reporters how the covert corps of cyber-provocateurs has been spreading propaganda in favor of President Vladimir Putin and attacking his perceived enemies on international blogs and news and opinion websites. But…
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A State Department video caught my eye today. “How to spot disinformation” gives five tips to recognize disinformation in one’s news feed. The video fleshes out each of the tips, which are: Identify the sources Look beyond the headline Recognize satire Check the references Consider your own bias The International Information Programs Bureau has produced…
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There’s been a growing tendency lately (particularly on BBGWatch, an online watchdog) to compare, unfavorably, VOA’s performance, as measured by number of stories or live reports from the scene of breaking news, with other national and international news organizations. Behind much of this criticism is an implicit expectation that VOA’s coverage should be as fast…
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The First Monday Forum on July 2018: Nelson Mandela Centennial, featured a panel of speakers: Dr. Bob Wekesa from the department of journalism and mass studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Ron Nixon, the Homeland Security correspondent for The New York Times and author of, Selling Apartheid: South Africa’s Global Propaganda…
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This is the second in a series of factual updates about United States public diplomacy and broadcasting. You’ll find a link to each of these on our Advocacy page. Public Diplomacy Field Operations Overseas operating costs in Fiscal Year 2017: $493 million* More than 4100 personnel: 700 Foreign Service and 2600 Locally Employed Staff (2018)…
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Nontraditional U.S. Public Diplomacy: Past, Present, and Future, edited by Deborah L. Trent, Ph.D., originally published by the Public Diplomacy Council in 2016, is now available online. Soon after 9/11, the late Representative Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, saw something was awry in America’s Public Diplomacy. “Few would assert,” he said,…
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This year marks 30 years since the Council’s establishment, and one way we are celebrating is to offer a digital version of our most recent volume, Nontraditional U.S. Public Diplomacy: Past, Present, and Future. Its online promotion is courtesy of our partner, the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy. Spanning the World War One era to 2016, the book’s 11 case…
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Should ambassadors tweet? Perhaps Robert Gates implied the answer should be “no.” The memoir by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, published in 2015, remains required reading for everyone who worked at the embassies, consulates, and Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book allows readers to…
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