The role of global media in public diplomacy

V. Awareness Campaign for Public Diplomacy

Global media can play very constructive roles in public diplomacy. Some years ago, the CCTV produced and broadcasted an excellent documentary series called “Rising of Great Powers (大國堀起)”. These films showed how traditional great powers made historical achievements. The documentaries recognized the basic values of democracy such as freedom, justice, fairness, and humanitarianism in the development process. Such recognition is a new interpretation by China. China used to credit the success of traditional great powers to the Western imperialism. Through this broadcast, the international audience gained the impression that China is slowly becoming more open-minded and recognizing the same values the West has long been pursuing. This implies that China’s public diplomacy is unfolding in a trustworthy manner.

However, careful attention should also be given to the possible negative effect of global media. Within the last few years, several cartoon depictions became a hot issue of debate because they humiliated a certain religion. Moreover, some video clips and photographs graphically depicted the misbehavior of the military personnel of certain countries. If distorted images are created and they happen to be an attractive subject of media attention, they can be distributed via SNS at an extremely rapid rate. Once these incidents are picked up by the media and SNS, they will completely demolish the efforts of public diplomacy that their representative governments have been engaged in for so long.

This is where the issue of public diplomacy clashes with freedom of expression. Whether a media outlet decides to carry an embarrassing report should be determined by the outlet itself under the principle of journalistic integrity. The outlet’s audience, and not the government, needs to play the role of check-and-balance in this case.

Strictly speaking, in the case of the cartoons, photos, and videos mentioned above, the media is not responsible for their negative effects. Rather it is a matter of the personality and conscience of the people. Therefore, the only way to prevent these incidents from reoccurring is to educate the people. There has been criticism that public diplomacy has neglected the involvement of the domestic populace. If information about their own government’s foreign policies is not readily available, citizens miss the many opportunities to conduct people-to-people diplomacy. Public diplomacy not only requires government initiative, but requires the involvement of all citizens. Awareness campaigns for public diplomacy need to be well organized to gain the support of domestic people at all levels.

VI. Conclusion

A large number of both government and private broadcasts have increased their number of viewers around the world. These global media have a responsibility to serve the common good. Originally, government broadcasts were established to promote the national interests of their host countries, and their reporting was filtered through a nationalistic view. However, global media today is expected to play a role in promoting more noble values that are commonly applicable to all people regardless of their nationality. These values include peace, human rights, and general wellbeing.

It would not seem very difficult for global media to produce programming that serves the common good. In actuality, this is difficult because audience reactions cannot all be positive due to differences in culture, customs, religion, history, and mindset.

If viewpoints are shifted from a global to a regional perspective, there is a higher likelihood of achieving these goals. Each region, however, has sensitive issues that affect its various members. This can be seen in Northeast Asia, where historical issues have harmed the relationships among relevant states. Media outlets in each country in the region have not put forth enough effort to solve the tension regarding these disputes. Rather, media outlets sometimes reported in a nationalistic sentiment, blinding historical facts.

There clearly exists some room for the media to play a constructive role in mitigating the resentment that has been surrounding the region for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. It cannot be expected of them to easily come to a consensus, but they can start with relatively easier issues to slowly build and expand the common ground, and then move to more delicate issues. Global media outlets need to remember that they have relatively small domestic audiences when compared to a larger international audience. This is the setting for neighboring countries to jointly conduct public diplomacy. Global media, with its powerful influence, is the most fitting venue for this joint public diplomacy project. Global media outlets should not ignore the sentiment of the people around the world and therefore global media should exercise its influence to promote the common good beyond the borders of its nation.

The author is the Ambassador for Public Diplomacy of Republic of Korea.

 

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