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

According to picture 3 and 4, three largest sources are “US Embassy in China” “Chinese in US” and
“US Diplomat in China”, accounting for 75% of the total.
Generally speaking, foreign embassies in China are the authoritative source of information concerning
foreign nations in China. The blog technology gives “Chinese in US” and “US Diplomat in China”
much more opportunities to say, and their voices have two strengths: one is to take the advantage of
their Chinese language skills in order to avoid misunderstanding caused by language differences and the
other is that personal voices are more persuasive and genial. Nevertheless, the function of making use of
blog texts written by Chinese in US needs further consideration since the intentions of the author might
be doubted, as discussed above.
Fourthly, “Embedded” Public Diplomacy Created by Micro-blogging
Blog platform helps the public who are normally at the end of communication value chain to move to
the front and with that tool, US public diplomacy in China seems more segmented, personalized and
genial. Micro-blogging, which can distribute short messages through both wireless and wire-based
channel and shuttle among different social networks swiftly, creates “embedded” public diplomacy 9 .
Based on the analysis of US Embassy’s Tencent micro-blogging, the writer tries to conclude the model
of “embedded” public diplomacy as follows:
1, Communication on the basis of “personal brand”
“Distribution of micro-blogging contents is based on ‘following’ ‘follower’ among micro-bloggers.” 10
The importance of inter-personal trust is highlighted in micro-blogging communication, and the node
with high credibility is much easier to exert influence in the social network. Foreign ambassador to
China, who is the highest figure represented foreign nation in China, is generally viewed by Chinese
public as the person obtains higher credibility. Social media provides foreign ambassadors opportunities
to walk from the backstage to the stage and their personal brands become important nodes in microblogging
communication to attract the general public. For instance, the first micro-blogging launched by
US Embassy in China is the one named “Jon Huntsman”-the name of US Ambassador to China. It is
managed centered on his personal brand-“the first US Ambassador to China arrived in Lhasa since
2002” “US Ambassador to China and his wife take their Chinese daughter to her birth place Yangzhou”
“US Ambassador to China goes grocery shopping by bicycle”, etc. Many texts about Jon Huntsman
become hot nodes to be rebroadcast or commented, for instance, the text “US Ambassador to China
goes grocery shopping by bicycle” attracts 1562 netizens to rebroadcast or comment.
2, Real-time Communication
Although the content of micro-blogging is limited within 140 characters and thus it cannot convey
opinions through narration as what blog does, it can distribute information on multiple terminals
flexibly so as to achieve real-time public diplomacy. For instance, on the morning of May 21 st , 2010,
7