The Effect Of Public Diplomacy

Public diplomacy is an important type of diplomatic activity, accompanied by foreign publicity, the development of mass media and the increasing influence of the Global Society. Public diplomacy’s major object group is the people of other countries; the main aim is to strengthen national sense of presence and influence, to improve their national image, and to enhance other countries and the international community for its own identity. Currently, it has become a main method for each country in the world to spread its image and to enhance its soft power. However, the traditional public diplomacy emphasizes on the importance of government, and focuses on "why to do" and "what to do", and lacks the study of public diplomacy’s effect. As a result, its evaluation criteria and effectiveness, as well as its influence for shape a country’s image still remains a cutting-edge issue. Countries are also unable to form a unified public diplomacy impact assessment criterion. Instead, they focus on themselves only.As a public diplomacy activity featuring multi-cultural subjects, various forms, rich content, large audience,2010Shanghai World Expo carries out the innovative and targeted public diplomacy practice form the process of preparation to the operation. The paper will focus on Shanghai World Expo as a case study, from the perspective of public diplomacy effects, comparing with Britain and U.S. A, trying to use a variety of research methods, such as the public diplomacy’s effects shall be based on input level and the results, the considerations of short-term results and long-term effects, funding, institutional settings (staffing), the target audience’s participation and awareness. In addition to this, international media’s reports and the audience on internet are also taken into consideration, to explore the factors that affect the public diplomacy effects, and thus to enrich the theory and practice of public diplomacy.This paper has four main points. The first chapter mainly discusses the theory of public diplomacy, and focuses on the theoretical concepts of public diplomacy, as well as the influence of improving their national image, and describes the current situation about the public diplomacy’s effect research. The second part discusses the Shanghai World Expo, mainly about its highlights and innovations. The third chapter is the core part of this paper which discusses the public effects of Shanghai World Expo. Finally, some advice and will be given to realize the further development of China’s public diplomacy and to enhance the effectiveness and impact of China’s public diplomacy.