| dc.description.abstract | The importance of social media as a tool of public diplomacy has gained traction in U.S. foreign
policy initiatives.
In the wake of emerging new and soph
isticated technology in the world,
embassies and consulates have increasingly adopted the use of social media as a diplomacy tool.
The audience all over the world change quickly forcing embassies and consulates to adapt to
their needs and interests promptl
y. It is clear that audiences have influenced the continuous
growth of media as well as the merger of social media with traditional media.
Engagement is an
important part of diplomacy and using social media is one way to promote a positive image.
Enhancing
public diplomacy initiatives abroad requires a deeper look at the international arena
and the current discourse around international communications. With the addition of new media,
such as social media, public diplomacy strategies must evolve to incorpora
te the new tools
dominating communication worldwide. Therefore, there is a need for a more symmetrical
approach to global communications by public diplomacy practitioners.
This research study
examined how traditional media utilizes social media. It therefo
re sought to find out what impact
the social media revolution has created on the public diplomacy field using the case study of the
US Embassy in Nairobi.
It has been often said that theory is a construct that assists us in
selecting and interpreting facts
. In this sense this study adopted the Realistic approach to public
diplomacy.
Realists think that humankind is not inherently benevolent but rather self
-
centered
and competitive.
Both qualitative and quantitative
research
methods were
used and it enabled the
researcher to understand the deeper structure of a phenomenon and to increase understanding of
the phenomenon within cultural and contextual situations by immersing oneself in the world in
which they occur, with a desire to uncover
the story behind the statistics.
It wa
s clear from the
study results that the most important social networking sites commonly used in the Embassy for
social media communication are Faceboo
k, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
The number of
comments, retweets, r
eplies, favorites and linked contents were some of the methods used in
measuring social media communication in the Embassy.
Majority of the respondents mentioned
diplomats, youth, students, community groups and the business world, public officials as the
t
arget groups target for social media communication in the Embassy studied.
Over half of the
respondents cited strengthening ties between the two countries, high interactivity in real
-
time,
speed of delivery, enhancing information sharing, promotion of publ
ic engagement, a global
visibility platform, feedback from the citizens and promotion of US Embassy activities as
benefits of social media communication to the Embassy. The study revealed the major challenges
experienced while using social media in communi
cation as vulnerability to hacking,
cyberbullying, negative and irrelevant comments, potential hecklers, credibility of information
content, difficulties in managing different section accounts, inadequacy in monitoring accounts,
not constantly updating acc
ounts and not able to answer some questions.
The global story of
social media has been one of empowerment. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested
that social media has already established its position as an integral part of organization
commu
nication of the Embassy and it will continue to do so. As the demands of the public
increase, the Embassy will have no other choice but to respond by ensuring flow of
communication. Social media is constantly changing. However, it is believed, also in this
study,
that the essence of communication is remaining but the change is in the speed, channels,
interactivity and impact of the communication | en_US |
