Xin Zhong Jiayi Lu- Public Diplomacy Model in the Era of Web 2.0 ...

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First-level Topics Secondlevel Topics Texts/ Percentage Thirdly, the Internet helps expand the target group of US public diplomacy in China. For instance, outreaching teams’ blogs realize the interaction between the US Embassy or US Consulate Generals and Chinese public who are often overlooked due to they are far away from the embassy or consulate generals. Fourthly, US Embassy’s blogs and micro-bloggings on different web-based platforms are highly overlapped in terms of content. Communication of ideas is eventually achieved through the output of textual meaning. With the purpose of finding out how the United States interacts with Chinese public with ideas in the context of new media, the article analyzes US Embassy’s blog texts from three dimensions, which are macro-view topic analysis—“what to say”, middle-view narration analysis—“how to say” and micro-view source of information analysis—“who is saying”; what’s more, the writer tries to summarize the communication model of Public Diplomacy 2.0 by analyzing the communication pattern of US Embassy’s microblogging. With regard to the highly overlapped contents of different blogs and micro-bloggings 6 , the article takes the earliest US Embassy’s blog at Tencent 7 and US Ambassador Jon Huntsman’s microblogging at Tencent 8 as examples. Firstly, Topics—Keeping Closer to Chinese Public, Highlighting American Society, US Cultural Exchange with China and Bilateral Relations By March 31, 2011, there are 371 texts on US Embassy’s Tencent blog. The writer tries to classify the texts based on topics: Table 3: Topic List of US Embassy’s Tencent Blog: Politics Society Politics Society Life Culture People 172/46.9% Bilateral Relations State Visit s 55/15.0% US Ambassador’s Activities in China Economy Trade ------ 3 4 Environment Energy Technology Climate Change 7 Social Media Cultural Exchanges with China ------ 81/22.1% Education Visa Educa -tion, Study in US The table above shows that the first-level topics-“Politics and Society” “Cultural Exchanges with China” and “Bilateral Relations”-are among the top three, which means introducing American society, cultural exchanges with China as well as Sino-US bilateral relations are the core agenda of US public diplomacy in China. The writer tries to segment the topic “Politics and Society” into second-level topics and finds out that the texts about “Society, Life, Culture and People” are 167, accounting for 97%, and the number of the texts under much smaller topics, such as “Revenue and Consumption” “Social Security” is more than that under the serious topic of “US Politics”, which exhibits that US Embassy tends to narrow the psychological distance with Chinese public by displaying the pictures of ordinary American people’s lives. Picture 1: Blogs about “Revenue and Consumption” and “Society Security”: 13 Visa Poli -cy Oth ers ----- 40
Revenue & Consumption Social Security “Cultural Exchanges with China” is one dimension of traditional US public diplomacy in China. In the past, cultural exchanges were generally achieved by face-to-face inter-personal interaction. The blog technology gives US Embassy a new tool to implement public diplomacy: informing Chinese public of latest cultural and artistic events organized by the embassy, interacting with Chinese netizens virtually, etc. “Bilateral Relations” is one of the core responsibilities undertaken by diplomatic missions overseas. Traditional media are more inclined to covering the topic from the perspective of politics; whereas new media tend to keep closer to ordinary people in China. For instance, under the second-level topic of “State Visits”, US Embassy’s Tencent blog introduces several detailed information that ordinary people may feel interested, such as who are the guests invited, what is the menu of state banquet. Secondly, Narration—Focusing on the Interests of Chinese Public, Reflecting Opinions through Narration The first-level topics can be segmented into smaller topics which are closer to the general public, yet how does the blog text narrate so as to reflect the ideas? The article takes 4 blog texts that are under the second-level topics of “Society, Life, Culture and People” as example, and tries to analyze its narration frame. Table 4: Blog Texts under “Housing Price”: American Family’s Electricity Bill American Family’s Water Bill Customers Love Cheap Goods, One-dollar Shops Popular American Family’s Telephone/Cable TV/Broad-band Bills American Citizen’s Monthly Cost of Mobile Phone American Family’s Revenue and Expense: Revenue American Family’s Revenue and Expense: Expense Why the Management Fee of Cooperative Apartment in New York is So High: Answers to Netizens’ Questions How Much Cost Buying House in US? Rental in US Housing Price in US Foreigners are Interested in American Real Estate Market, As Same as that in China Emergency and Aid and Medical Insurance for All People in US American Senior Citizens’ Right to Work People from Lower Social Class in US: Foreign Students and American Senior Citizens of Chinese Origin People from Lower Social Class in US: Servants at Restaurant Time Headline Author View/Comment Jan. 5, 2011 How Much Cost Buying House in US? Jianan, Chinese in US 17912/440 Jan. 10, 2011 Rental in US Jianan, Chinese in US 168717/182 Jan. 11, 2011 Housing Price in US Jianan, Chinese in US 29074/88 Jan. 18, 2011 Foreigners are Interested in American Real Estate Market, As Same as that in China Xiao, Chinese in US 364/6 5
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