Understanding public diplomacy in the social media era: A typology and review

Although the interplay of social media usage and public diplomatic practices has gained an increasing scholarly attention, a comprehensive understanding of this stream of literature is lacking by far. This study is aimed at answering questions regarding how diplomatic missions are using social media, for what purposes, and how to achieve these purposes. Through a systematic analysis of nearly 40 empirical studies on how diplomats and diplomatic missions use social media, this article first revealed the four major roles played by social media, which are mediation, information, affordance, and relationship building and maintenance. The study then goes into details regarding how different strategic purposes are fulfilled via two major theoretical frameworks: network analysis and public engagement. This study contributes to the communication field by being one of the few reviews linking social media and public diplomacy, and provides a synthesis of this particular communication framework. This study also provided suggestions for future research directions.