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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Posts by Joshua Fouts

INTERDEPENDENTLY YOURS (MELTING POT OR DIASPORIC DIVIDE?)
OCT 8, 2007 - 10:54AM PDT
Posted by Joshua S Fouts
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(This blog originally appeared on the MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight)


For the past four years Doug Thomas and I have been exploring the potential role of virtual worlds as entry point for cultural dialog through our Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Initiative. We began our research looking at the virtual world/MMOG, Star Wars Galaxies. At the time, the game presented itself as a rich hybrid: players could both play a game and live in it. Residents built and ran cities, they “owned” homes and decorated them (and, more importantly, invested in them emotionally) in myriad self-expressive ways. What was most exciting... FULL TEXT
 
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BETWEEN THE WRONG THING AND ‘THE DONE THING’
JUN 7, 2007 - 8:10AM PDT
Posted by Gbemisola Olujobi
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USC Center on Public Diplomacy Research Associate Gbemisola Olujobi sheds light on one of the pejorative images that has come to define Africa in the eyes of many around the world.

Corruption goes by many names in Africa -- "kola," "egunje," "maslaha," "kompo," "kitu-kidogo," "tikoko," "toshiyar-baki," "sweetener," etc. Everyone recognizes it as a gangrenous evil. Sometimes, however, the line between wrongdoing and the done thing tends to be...a little fuzzy.

The story is told of an African public officer who went to a Swiss bank and announced himself as a member of his country's anti-corruption commission. He said he was... FULL TEXT
 
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THE AFRICA YOU NEED TO KNOW
DEC 1, 2006 - 4:12PM PDT
Posted by Gbemisola Olujobi
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What is disaster pornography? Africans define it as the Western media’s habit of blacking out Africa’s stock markets, high rises, internet cafes, cell phones, heart surgeries, soaring literacy and increasing democratization, while gleefully parading her genocides, armed conflicts, child soldiers, foreign debts, hunger, disease, and backwardness.


I recently found myself making small talk with an airport official in the United States. “I hear in Africa, people are very poor and hungry, they don’t have anything to eat,” he said.
“I saw a documentary on Africa a few days ago on CNN, and there were all these hungry people, dying children,... FULL TEXT
 
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BONO, PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND ‘BRAND AFRICA’
MAY 25, 2006 - 5:01PM PDT
Posted by Simon Anholt
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From the May 12, 2006 Dallas Business Journal:

In Dallas for a talk presented by the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth, rock star Bono advocated more U.S. aid to Africa as a means of diplomacy and preventing terrorism. "Public diplomacy at its core is really about branding," the U2 singer said. "But the American brand isn't at its shiniest. The neon is crackling." ... At the Genesis Women's Shelter's annual Mother's Day Luncheon, former President George H.W. Bush was knocked out by a spirited invocation delivered by the Rev. Dr. Sheron Patterson of Highland Hills Methodist Church. "I might... FULL TEXT

CHINESE TV EXTENDS ITS REACH INTO AFRICA
DEC 19, 2005 - 12:50PM PDT
Posted by Adam Clayton Powell III
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NAIROBI – December 10

Is Africa becoming part of the Middle Kingdom?

That is a popular question in the news recently: The week began with a Council on Foreign Relations report describing Africa's strategic importance to the United States. The report was comprehensive, but most American media accounts focused on one chapter, about energy, and how the Chinese were cultivating African oil, gas and other resources.

The week ended with the publication of Andrew Neil's remarks at the Institute of Economic Affairs, in which he detailed China's economic growth and worldwide expansion.

But here in Africa, you did not to... FULL TEXT
 
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