Twitter credibility

July 6th, 2010  |  by  |  published in Media & Technology

Quick take on the July 29 New York Times article about the twitterific musings of the State Department’s senior technology advisors, Alec Ross and Jared Cohen.
The article “Twitter Musings in Syria Elicit Groans in Washington” addresses the discomfort caused by Ross and Cohen’s candid musings about their experience while traveling Syria for the State Department. The two were “riffing about how visitors can buy an American-style blended iced coffee at a university near Damascus and how one of them had challenged a Syrian communications minister to a cake-eating contest.”
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable use of Twitter to me.

A Conversation on Media Technology and Diplomacy

April 2nd, 2010  |  by  |  published in Media & Technology

I had the good fortune to attend a discussion last week between Alec Ross, the Senior Advisor for Innovation in the office of Secretary of State Clinton and Marc Lynch, professor of political science at George Washington University and a featured blogger on Foreign Policy.com. The focus of the discussion was primarily about the use of media technology for outreach and public diplomacy in the Arab world. Each gave a short presentation that talked about the need for embracing technology, and for sustaining realistic attitudes towards what communication technology can accomplish for the US State Department. For this blog post, I’ll summarize a few of the interesting points they raised:

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Afghanistan Al-Jazeera AL-Jazeera English alec ross Ali Fisher Bagram Air Base China Cultural Diplomacy debate Development diplomacy DOD domestic politics foreign policy Freedom of the Press Gaza Hedley Bull international relations Iran Iraq lame McHale media power networks new media persuasion practice public diplomacy public diplomacy 2.0 public opinion Religion rhetoric Robin Brown self-promotion statecraft State Department statesmenship Steven Corman strategic communications strategy technology theory US USC War on Islam

  • Amb. Casamitjana: I sign off on prearranged tweets & post myself. I don't share personal info. Convey fopo of Mex. Govt.
  • How can groups like Sister Cities benefit from social media? Get the message out!
  • : must think broadly about interlocutors for diplomacy. Social media can help connect/identify.
  • Mex amb. Casamitjana : states suffering from legitimacy crisis for public policy. Sounds like Castells on network power.
  • : social media punishes moderation. Rewards extremist politics. Don't know where this is going.

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