18 Jan 2011|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector-125 Noida
Amity School of Communication Presents a talk on "Public Diplomacy, Soft Power and the Digital Media Environment" by Dr. Robin Brown, Director Institute of Communication studies, Universities of Leeds, UK
A talk on "Public Diplomacy, Soft Power and the Digital Media Environment" by Dr. Robin Brown, Director Institute of Communication Studies, Universities of Leeds, UK was organized by Amity School of Communication (ASCO) at the Amity University campus, Sector – 125, Noida. The objective of the talk was to discuss the challenges faced by countries in developing public diplomacy programmes.
Delivering his welcome address Prof. Col. R.K Dargan, Director, ASCO informed that “Dr. Brown works on the relationship between communication and politics both domestic and international, and his current focus of research is public diplomacy. Dr. Brown’s core interest of research lies in the elite aspects of political communication, in particular areas such as government news management, media effects on political elites, lobbying and the impact of information gathering on decision making.”
Presenting his talk Dr. Robin Brown said “over the past decade there has been a surge of interest among governments around the world in the way that communication can be used to promote a country’s image and interests. The interest in public diplomacy activities has been supported by the development of concepts of soft power and the nation brand. Mulling over the prospects of Digital Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy 2.0 (PD 2.0) strategies that make use of technologies such as Facebook and Twitter to promote national interest, Dr. Brown stated that “with the change of the Digital Media Environment there emerges a change in the ways and modes of communication. Although Digital Environment offers higher information accessibility to the users yet it comes with the disguised pitfall of critical and confidential information getting disseminated on certain occasions”. He added “the theme of Public Diplomacy’ studies is the need to change and upgrade peoples perception of communication, that ideally is a two way process and one which essentially walks a step ahead of mere transferring of information to building long term relationships”.
The talk was followed by a vivid interactive session between Dr. Brown and the students and faculty members of ASCO wherein issues like ‘How to incorporate PD 2.0 into the broader practice of diplomacy, How to evaluate the real world impact of PD 2.0, The changing media environment and Effective use of available technologies were discussed.
Also present during the talk were Ms. Pooja Khullar, Regional Manager, University of Leeds South Asia Office and Maj, Gen. R. K Dhawan, Director, International Affair Division.