The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2011

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 three years and has pledged another $25 million for 2011. In a rebuttal to Gladwell, New York University New Media Professor Clay Shirky wrote an article titled “The Po- litical Power of Social Media” for the January-February edition of Foreign Affairs hailing the force of social media. He urges State to shift its focus away from anti-censorship software, and to- ward promoting the Internet as an ac- cessible gathering place and forum for participation. Shirky sees great potential for social media to strengthen civil society and the public sphere. By increasing com- municative freedom, social media strengthen political freedom. More- over, they feed what media theorist Mark Briggs termed “the conservative dilemma.” As new forms of media emerge and reveal gaps between the regime’s view of events and those of the public, authoritarian governments must engage in a game of Whack-a-Mole, generating propaganda and censorship campaigns to counteract competing narratives. Social media also provide outside observers with opportunities to better understand public opinion and to view events through the eyes of the local population. Where they are widely used, social media act as a barometer for public attitudes. This accelerates the speed at which policymakers, re- formers and observers can gather in- formation, and reduces the costs and risks they incur in doing so. Another thread of the debate sur- rounds the question of who will bene- fit more from social media: democratic reformers or the governments that seek to suppress them. In his op-ed “Re- flections on a Revolution in Egypt,” Council on Foreign Relations Presi- dent Richard Haass concludes that “so- cial media are not decisive: they can be repressed by governments, as well as employed by governments to motivate their supporters.” During her Feb. 15 speech on In- ternet freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commented that the 2009 protests in Iran and the 2011 protests in Egypt both represent the power of the Internet as “an accel- erant of political, social and economic change and…as a means to stifle or ex- tinguish that change.” However, Clinton added that this thread of the debate is “largely beside the point” — because the value of the Internet derives from the various activ- ities its users pursue within it. The ob- jective, therefore, is to secure basic rights and freedoms online, so that so- cial media can fulfill their potential to form a global public space. Whether social media fall to meet Gladwell’s expectations or rise to meet Shirky’s remains to be seen. Egypt, where 15-20 percent of the population has Internet access, is one of the bet- ter-connected countries in the region. With such a small proportion of the Middle East and North Africa online, it is too early to judge social media’s po- tential to bring about change in the re- gion. —Danielle Derbes, Editorial Intern Video Review: Public Diplomacy A re-released video production, “Public Diplomacy” (The Public Diplomacy Council, 2011, 102 min- utes), serves both as a primer on the substance of public diplomacy and a time capsule on this foreign affairs function as practiced by the U.S. In- formation Agency until the end of the last century. C Y B E R N O T E S CHANGE OF ADDRESS Moving? Take AFSA With You! Change your address online at: www.afsa.org/comment.cfm To log in, use your AFSA membership number on the mailing label of your Foreign Service Journal . The number is on the top left corner of the label, right above your name. It may be 2 digits or up to 7 digits. The password is your last name. It is not case sensitive. Or Send change of address to: AFSA Membership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037