GLOBAL COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Catalog description

(Slashed with COMM 65736 ) Provides students with an in-depth understanding of public diplomacy as an instrument of foreign policy by considering both Western and non-Western paradigms, case studies and policies. By placing communication as a central organizational framework, it critically explores the theory and practice of public diplomacy from historical and contemporary perspectives. It examines how governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations engage with foreign publics with the aim of exerting influence and seeking favorable political, cultural and economic conditions. Drawing from existing and emerging trends, it emphasizes the centrality of communication in the different avenues of public diplomacy including international broadcasting, media technology, educational and cultural exchange and global sporting events. By framing public diplomacy as a double-edged communication phenomenon that can be deployed as a means of global understanding/advocacy as well as a tool for conflict/domination, the course prepares students to be critical participants and targets of the global mechanics of public influence.