A Study On The Micro-blog Diplomacy Of British Embassy And U.S. Embassy To China

With national competition more and more reflected in soft power, every countryattaches more importance to contact with foreign citizens by public diplomacyactivities. The development and transformation of media technology pushed publicdiplomacy from traditional forms such as international conferences, contactsbetween folk friendship groups to new forms such as Internet diplomacy andmicro-blog diplomacy. After2009, micro-blog has experienced a rapid expansion inour country, countries like Britain, U.S., who have a rich experience in publicdiplomacy, using this platform for public diplomacy with rapid speed.The use of micro-blog on public diplomacy is a new political communicationactivity. The thesis chooses the micro-blog of British embassy and U.S. embassy asstudy objects, using text analysis method, etc, analyzing the practice of Britain andU.S. on micro-blog public diplomacy and their strategies, in the purpose ofnourishing existing research achievements on public diplomacy and promotingpublic diplomacy activities of our country.The disseminating strategies of the micro-blog public diplomacy of Britishembassy and U.S. embassy including, showing national soft power by topics on theirsociety, history and culture, approaching Chinese public by topics on bilateralrelations, shaping image of service-oriented government by topics on visa andeducation, expanding political figure’s influence by reporting their doings lively,making it convenient to receive information for users by setting up micro-columns.The audience strategies of the micro-blog public diplomacy of British embassy andU.S. embassy including, allowing free discussion, contacting public figures andordinary people by online and offline activities.Because of the differences between social and cultural background anddiplomatic philosophy, there are apparent differences on micro-blog publicdiplomacy strategies between British embassy and U.S. embassy. On theconstruction of national image, the micro-blog of British embassy constructs a mildnational image; the micro-blog of U.S. embassy constructs a national image of fairsociety, excellent welfare system and so on. On the construction of political figure’simage, the micro-blog of British embassy hardly constructs political figure’s image,the micro-blog of U.S. embassy constructs political figure’s image from differentaspects. On the style of commenting Chinese affairs, the micro-blog of Britishembassy comments Chinese affairs directly, while, the micro-blog of U.S. embassyhardly comments Chinese affairs in a direct way. On the micro-blog language of twocountries, the micro-blog of British embassy is more active than micro-blog of U.S.embassy.In contrast with the mature public diplomacy activities Western countrieslaunched by micro-blog, our country has lagged behind. So far, our country mainly launches public diplomacy activities by traditional forms; our embassies have notlaunched public diplomacy activities by micro-blog. Therefore, it is necessary tolearn from the experience of Britain and U.S. so that we can make a progress inpublic diplomacy. The experiences including, applying the latest media technologyfor public diplomacy, integrating our diplomatic resources, establishing efficientleading and executing mechanism of public diplomacy, choosing disseminatingcontent in the need of foreign audiences, exporting our values in an appropriate way,contacting public figures especially opinion leaders.