Public Diplomacy and Journalism

Abstract

The author argues that standards of objectivity and accuracy employed by journalists should also be held by practitioners of public diplomacy. The perceived commonality with propaganda makes public diplomacy vulnerable to challenge about its being an ethical enterprise. Examples of U.S. public diplomacy efforts in Iraq and in Arab-speaking countries more generally are discussed, including the development of television channels. It is argued that public diplomacy, like journalism, must be conducted ethically or else it will certainly fail.