An US Department of State press release posted on January 9, 2007 announced that Secretary Rice wil be visiting the Middle East from January 12 through January 19, 2007 and will meet regional leaders to discuss the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, upcoming strategies for Iraq, and other issues of regional importance.
In an article published in the Journal of Communication Inquiry titled "US public diplomacy in the Middle East," I point out that historically, public diplomacy efforts targeted at the Middle East have been driven by manipulative tactics. The goals of these diplomacy efforts have been to use persuasion strategies that would shift public opinion in the Middle East. This top-down approach reflects one-way communication and has only created grounds for further conflict. Fundamental to this approach is the idea that there's something wrong with the intended audience of the message. Further, current public diplomacy efforts in the Middle east suggest that this audience needs to be (and can be) changed through public diplomacy efforts.
I suggest the culture-centered approach as an alternative to these top-down methods of communication in public diplomacy. The culture-centered approach is committed to listening to other voices and ultimately is open to changes in policies based on what emerges from the dialogue. Culture-centered listening is in essence different from mere talk of listening that we are currently seeing in US public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East that simply use the language of listening to further co-opt the agendas of the target audience and use listening as another persuasive tool to convince the target audience. Such facades of listening are inherently dishonest and I would argue, become clearly evident to the intended audience of the message.
In an article published in the Journal of Communication Inquiry titled "US public diplomacy in the Middle East," I point out that historically, public diplomacy efforts targeted at the Middle East have been driven by manipulative tactics. The goals of these diplomacy efforts have been to use persuasion strategies that would shift public opinion in the Middle East. This top-down approach reflects one-way communication and has only created grounds for further conflict. Fundamental to this approach is the idea that there's something wrong with the intended audience of the message. Further, current public diplomacy efforts in the Middle east suggest that this audience needs to be (and can be) changed through public diplomacy efforts.
I suggest the culture-centered approach as an alternative to these top-down methods of communication in public diplomacy. The culture-centered approach is committed to listening to other voices and ultimately is open to changes in policies based on what emerges from the dialogue. Culture-centered listening is in essence different from mere talk of listening that we are currently seeing in US public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East that simply use the language of listening to further co-opt the agendas of the target audience and use listening as another persuasive tool to convince the target audience. Such facades of listening are inherently dishonest and I would argue, become clearly evident to the intended audience of the message.
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