Digital Diplomacy-Maximizing Social Media in Indonesia's Economic and Cultural Diplomacy

DOI

10.2991/icosop-16.2017.52How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social media, digital diplomacy, Indonesia's Economic and Cultural Diplomacy.

Abstract

As Indonesian foreign policy now focuses on the enhanced economic and cultural diplomacy in advancing its national interests, social media outlets certainly offer opportunities and advantages that are too good to be missed. This paper intends to portray the use of social media outlets in diplomacy and to demonstrate that, when their use responds to the audience's needs and strategically considers the overall information landscape, they can be utilized as effective public diplomacy tools. Comparative analysis about the current use of social media by the U.S. State Department and Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide more complete pictures of valuable contribution, as well as challenges and possible risks, of the use of social media in enhancing public diplomacy, including economic and cultural diplomacy. The conclusion of this study: (1) digital diplomacy is not a replacement for face-to-face diplomacy, but rather a complement to it. Social media serves as one of the catalysts which expedite the desired changes on the ground. Certainly, (2) social media alone cannot cause revolutions or social movements, but it has proved to be an effective tool for strengthening and amplifying the message we want to deliver, (3) in the case of economic and cultural diplomacy, social media fits in well.Taking all the aforementioned development into consideration, it is therefore timely to take a closer look and conduct a critical review of maximizing social media and digital diplomacy platforms and integrate them into Indonesia's diplomatic practices.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Syafruddin Pohan
AU  - Hazairin Pohan
AU  - Indah Nuria Savitri
PY  - 2016/11
DA  - 2016/11
TI  - Digital Diplomacy-Maximizing Social Media in Indonesia's Economic and Cultural Diplomacy
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 2016)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 372
EP  - 390
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icosop-16.2017.52
DO  - 10.2991/icosop-16.2017.52
ID  - Pohan2016/11
ER  -