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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 Alvin Snyder

MAY BAD-MOUTHING CONTINUE: IRAN AND THE VOICE OF AMERICA
JUN 23, 2009 - 11:13AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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Each time the Iranian Islamic dictatorship condemns the Voice of America by name for broadcasting news of anti-government demonstrations into that country, it can only mean more dollars for the VOA's Persian News Network — and VOA in general — at budget time on Capitol Hill.

The case can be credibly made that the VOA is a healthy return on investment for U.S. taxpayers when Iran's Foreign Ministry rails that such Western TV channels as the BBC and VOA "are the mouthpiece of their government’s public diplomacy." And it's helpful too that the VOA is mentioned in the same breath... FULL TEXT
 
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PUBLIC DIPLOMACY’S GLASS CEILINGS
JUN 17, 2009 - 1:44PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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Women in public diplomacy have long been confronted with a glass ceiling in Washington. It seems that their male counterparts in PD now see such a ceiling as well.

What caught my eye was a comment last weekend by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. At her 50th class reunion at Wellesley College, Dr. Albright remarked to Boston Globe correspondent Ben Terris that women probably make better diplomats than men.

"In a lot of ways we do have advantages," she said. "Diplomacy is about being able to put yourself into someone else's shoes, to be able to empathize, figure... FULL TEXT
 
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PASSING THE DAY AT GUANTANAMO BAY: A VIDEO GAME IS ON THE WAY
JUN 9, 2009 - 2:14PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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What do the following have in common? Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and North Korea’s sentencing of the two American female journalists to hard labor.

Answer: Each is relevant to Current TV, a U.S. satellite TV channel and Web site.

The two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, convicted of illegally entering North Korea from China, are reporters for Current TV.

Al Gore, who narrowly missed becoming a U.S. President in the 2000 election, is co-founder of Current TV. Well-behaved Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who are being supplied with laptop computers and provided access to... FULL TEXT
 
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BREACHING THE FIREWALL
JUN 5, 2009 - 10:12AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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U.S. government international communicators shifted into max overdrive from both sides of that protective "firewall," to report on what may become known as one of the great White House public diplomacy efforts ever: President Obama's June 4 address from Cairo, Egypt to the Middle East and beyond. The speech was unquestionably both a news event and a public diplomacy activity, so there are times when the mythical "firewall," to protect the independence of government international journalistic endeavors, may be ethically breached. This was one of them.

From the State Department, where there is an Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy, the speech... FULL TEXT
 
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IS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY JOURNALISM DEAD?
MAY 29, 2009 - 1:15PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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Maybe public diplomacy journalism is only dying, or maybe it has just become boring to write about the subject these days. This seems to be so on both sides of the pond.

I first noted the observation by John Brown, Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown University, who puts forth his informative (and always colorful) Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, and who does not see as much being written today about PD as in the past. Professor Brown told me he has not made a "scientific study, but…I find far fewer PD items than I did say last... FULL TEXT
 
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