| As we strides into the age of information, new technologies are affecting everyaspect of our lives and gave birth to new media represented by the internet. Due to theadvantages such as interactivity, agility and hypertextuality of new media, they havebecome popular around the globe and have ushered in the age of new media.Meanwhile, new media have also posed challenges to modern public diplomacy. TheUntied States, as the originator of public diplomacy, has begun to make someadjustments to cope with these challenges. One of the changes of U.S. publicdiplomacy is the adoption of cyber diplomacy-the product of information technologyand modern public diplomacy. Cyber diplomacy by nature is media diplomacy, whichis a type of public diplomacy and has unique advantages compared with traditionaldiplomacy.This thesis firstly defines new media and gives a brief introduction of thetheoretical interpretations of new media in the international relations circle. Next itillustrates public diplomacy, media diplomacy and cyber diplomacy. After that,examples are given to analyze the measures the Obama administration has taken toimplement cyber diplomacy and their effectiveness.After Obama became president, his administration began active efforts ofemploying cyber diplomacy to adjust the modern U.S. public diplomacy. This thesisgenerally describes the effectiveness of those efforts and predicts the future trends ofU.S. cyber diplomacy. Due to the unchanged fundamental purpose of Americandiplomacy, which is to maintain its hegemonic interest, the effectiveness of U.S. cyberdiplomacy is limited. However, generally speaking, cyber diplomacy has become anessential new force of U.S. public diplomacy. |
