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This book examines the role of new media and digital technologies in public diplomacy and political communication.
Exploring political communication in India as well as in the US and China, it highlights the fundamental changes that new technology has brought about in public diplomacy. While facilitating direct engagement with constituents and tapping into territories and audiences which were harder to reach before, the new media's power to influence perceptions has revolutionised public diplomacy and engagement like never before. While managing national brands utilizing digital tools has emerged imperative for contemporary nation states, they are equally engaged in online disinformation and influence campaigns. This book analyzes these activities and also emphasizes the critical role of social media in defining and shaping political attitudes while empowering the ordinary public and the leadership alike. The author, through examples from India, the US, and China, also examines the challenges of using digital tools in diplomacy and its effects on democracies across the world.
Lucid and engaging, this book will be an essential read for students and scholars of communication studies, political studies, diplomacy and foreign policy, defence and strategic analysis, media and culture studies, and international relations.
List of contents
1.Introduction 2. Evolving Contours of New Media: Public Diplomacy and Political Communication in the Global Context 3. New Media: Global Trends in Political Communication and Diplomacy 4. The US Leadership: New Media-driven Diplomacy and Political Communication Since 9/11 5. China: New Media, Public Diplomacy, and Political Communication 6. India's Digital Public Diplomacy and Political Communication: The Evolution (Pre-2014) 7. India's Digital Public Diplomacy and Political Communication: The Evolution (2014 Onward) 8. Disinformation, Extreme Content, and Public Response: India, the US, and China 9. Concluding Thoughts: Digital Diplomacy in the Post-COVID-19 New Normal Appendix 1: India's Adoption of New Media Platforms for Public Diplomacy
About the author
Parama Sinha Palit is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. She was a Cooperative Monitoring Center (CMC) Fellow with the Sandia National Laboratories (US Department of Energy) in 2021. She was also a consultant with CRDF Global (US) in 2022. A specialist on foreign policy and public diplomacy, she is the author of Analyzing China’s Soft Power Strategy and Comparative Indian Initiatives (2017). While in India, she was a researcher at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) as well as the United Services Institution (USI).
Summary
This book examines the role of new media and digital technologies in public diplomacy and political communication.
