Public Diplomacy at Arab Embassies: Fighting an Uphill Battle

Khakimova, Leysan

doi:10.1080/1553118x.2012.738446

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…An interview study with embassy officers from Arab countries, in deed, revealed that personal relationships with decision makers and journalists as well as the establishment of trust were perceived more important than online communication (Khakimova, 2013). From the perspective of stakeholders, a descriptive study by Khakimova (2015) found that citizens were barely interested in engaging with governments online.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: Strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Strauß

Kruikemeier

Meulen

et al. 2015

Government Information Quarterly

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Drawing upon online communication research, this study identifies six effective communication strategies for social media-based diplomacy on Twitter: interactive, personalized, positive, relevant, and transparent communication among a broad network of stakeholders. By using an extensive mix-method design (i.e., combining a manual content and automated network analyses, N = 4438 tweets), this research examines to what extent these communication strategies are adopted on Twitter by Western embassies active in countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council. We found that embassies are not utilizing social media to its full potential. Although embassies are transparent, use positive sentiment in their online communication and post relevant information to their stakeholders, they hardly engage in direct interactive and personal communication, and only reach out to a limited group of stakeholders. We recommend embassies to put more emphasis on two-way interactive communication with a vast variety of stakeholders.

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Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: Strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Strauß

Kruikemeier

Meulen

et al. 2015

Government Information Quarterly

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“…One of its recommendations ties in with this article's object of analysis, namely that each Arab embassy abroad should have its own website to give users easy access to information. Khakimova (2013) suggests that engaging in public diplomacy at Arab embassies and creating a positive relationship with the American public is an uphill battle. This conclusion was drawn after interviewing employees from 20 Arab embassies in the United States.…”

Section: Arab and Israeli Public And Digital Diplomacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Do MENA countries practice digital diplomacy? An analysis of their embassies’ websites in Spain

Manero

2023

Communication & Society

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This research carries out an analysis of the websites published by MENA countries’ embassies with a presence in Spain, in order to understand whether they practice digital diplomacy. Such activity is a low-cost, wide-ranging public diplomacy tool. The analysis covers a two-year period (2020-2022) that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic, a context that prompted the digitization of many sectors. The article contributes to the literature on Arab and Israeli digital diplomacy, as well as on digital diplomacy as practiced by embassies. Specifically, this exploratory analysis examines the webpages and published press notes of four countries’ embassies, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, and Qatar. These countries were chosen because they have the most robust websites in Spanish, together with the fact that they were the MENA countries whose governments pioneered the use of Twitter as an instrument of digital diplomacy. The article examines the topics and interpretations provided by the press notes published on these embassies’ websites. A discourse analysis methodology with references to the original sources is applied. Topics and interpretations are classified into four types of public diplomacy: media diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, niche diplomacy and nation branding. The conclusion is that the MENA countries studied neglect digital diplomacy on their websites in Spain, missing out on the opportunities it represents. The apparently four most digitized embassies in this group have errors on their webpages and often only publish messages from their respective foreign ministries, focusing on regional and internal issues rather than on their bilateral relationship with Spain. This is especially true of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

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“…Most of these studies focus on analyzing the content of messages published by the various government institutions (Dodd and Collins 2017, Straub et al, 2015, Zhong and Lu 2013. The aim is then to demonstrate the public's reasons for interacting with foreign governments (Khakimova 2013), to study the efforts of governments to reach this audience (Zhong and Lu 2013), or to demonstrate usefulness of social networks to address stakeholders (Waters, Burnett et al, 2009).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy

2021

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This chapter focuses on the required use of social media by diplomats and aims to understand how they operationalize this strong but blurred injunction from their hierarchy. Participating in conversations, debates and engaging with the public, giving opinion, showing pictures or videos, sharing or commenting news or anniversaries, the concrete interpretation of the visibility injunction can take various forms that may be close or quasi antinomic to the essence of social media. Secrecy and caution are especially part of the decision process of publishing content on social media, leading diplomats to try and find a balance between constant visibility in the public sphere and protection of sensitive issues. Based on interviews with several diplomats in Brussels, Paris and Kiev, in particular public affairs officers in embassies as well as in missions to the European Union, our chapter draws their representation of the social media communication constraint, how they include or not evaluation and reflexive steps in their practice, what expectations

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Public Diplomacy at Arab Embassies: Fighting an Uphill Battle

Cited by 11 publications

References 50 publications

Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: Strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: Strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Do MENA countries practice digital diplomacy? An analysis of their embassies’ websites in Spain

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy

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