Do MENA countries practice digital diplomacy? An analysis of their embassies’ websites in Spain

This research carries out an analysis of the websites published by MENA countries’ embassies with a presence in Spain, in order to understand whether they practice digital diplomacy. Such activity is a low-cost, wide-ranging public diplomacy tool. The analysis covers a two-year period (2020-2022) that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic, a context that prompted the digitization of many sectors. The article contributes to the literature on Arab and Israeli digital diplomacy, as well as on digital diplomacy as practiced by embassies. Specifically, this exploratory analysis examines the webpages and published press notes of four countries’ embassies, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, and Qatar. These countries were chosen because they have the most robust websites in Spanish, together with the fact that they were the MENA countries whose governments pioneered the use of Twitter as an instrument of digital diplomacy. The article examines the topics and interpretations provided by the press notes published on these embassies’ websites. A discourse analysis methodology with references to the original sources is applied. Topics and interpretations are classified into four types of public diplomacy: media diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, niche diplomacy and nation branding. The conclusion is that the MENA countries studied neglect digital diplomacy on their websites in Spain, missing out on the opportunities it represents. The apparently four most digitized embassies in this group have errors on their webpages and often only publish messages from their respective foreign ministries, focusing on regional and internal issues rather than on their bilateral relationship with Spain. This is especially true of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.Esta investigación analiza las páginas web de embajadas de países del grupo MENA con presencia en España, con el fin de comprobar si practican la diplomacia digital. Dicha actividad es una herramienta de diplomacia pública de bajo coste y amplio alcance. El análisis abarca dos años (2020-2022) protagonizados por la pandemia Covid, que impulsó la digitalización de muchos sectores. El artículo contribuye a la literatura sobre diplomacia digital árabe e israelí y sobre diplomacia digital ejercida por embajadas. Se realiza un análisis exploratorio de las páginas web y un análisis más detallado del contenido de las webs de las embajadas de cuatro países: Arabia Saudí, Israel, Marruecos y Catar. Se eligen estos países porque son los que presentan páginas más funcionales y en español, unido a ser los primeros del grupo cuyos gobiernos utilizaron Twitter como instrumento de diplomacia digital. El artículo examina de qué temas hablan y qué interpretaciones aportan las notas de prensa publicadas en las webs de las embajadas. Se aplica el método de análisis del discurso con referencias a las fuentes originales. Temas y argumentos se clasifican en cuatro tipos de diplomacia pública: mediática, cultural, de nicho y de marca-país. Se concluye que la diplomacia digital de las páginas web de las embajadas del grupo MENA en España está descuidada. Se desaprovechan las oportunidades que esta actividad representa. Las cuatro embajadas aparentemente más digitalizadas tienen errores en sus páginas y se limitan en gran parte a publicar mensajes de las cancillerías, centrándose en cuestiones de tipo regional e internas y más en la relación bilateral con España. Esto ocurre especialmente en los casos de Arabia Saudí y Catar

Framing as a tool for mediatic diplomacy analysis: study of George W. Bush’s political discourse in the “War on Terror”

Public diplomacy is an international political communication activity to which States and other organizations resort in order to achieve political objectives abroad and to establish positive relations with foreign publics. It is an activity that has evolved to adapt to the new global context, adding new characteristics and giving place to the so-called “new public diplomacy”. One of the different variants of public diplomacy is mediatic diplomacy, whose end is to get the public diplomacy’s message transmitted by institutional media or to get a positive coverage by foreign media. This article proposes a specific process to apply the framing theory as a tool for political discourse analysis, an essential element of mediatic diplomacy. The process is applied to George W. Bush’s political discourse during the first months of the “War on Terror”. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ La diplomacia pública es una actividad de comunicación política internacional a la que recurren Estados y otras organizaciones, con el fin de lograr objetivos políticos en el exterior y establecer relaciones positivas con públicos externos. Se trata de una actividad que ha evolucionado para adaptarse al nuevo contexto global, incorporando nuevas características y dando lugar a la denominada “nueva diplomacia pública”. Entre las distintas variantes de diplomacia pública se encuentra la diplomacia mediática, cuyo fin es lograr que el mensaje de la diplomacia pública se transmita a través de medios institucionales o reciba una cobertura positiva en medios de comunicación extranjeros. Este artículo propone un proceso específico para aplicar la teoría del framing como herramienta de análisis del discurso político, elemento fundamental de la diplomacia mediática. Un proceso que se aplica al discurso político de George W. Bush en los primeros meses de la “Guerra contra el Terror”

Do MENA countries practice digital diplomacy? An analysis of their embassies’ websites in Spain

This research carries out an analysis of the websites published by MENA countries’ embassies with a presence in Spain, in order to understand whether they practice digital diplomacy. Such activity is a low-cost, wide-ranging public diplomacy tool. The analysis covers a two-year period (2020-2022) that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic, a context that prompted the digitization of many sectors. The article contributes to the literature on Arab and Israeli digital diplomacy, as well as on digital diplomacy as practiced by embassies. Specifically, this exploratory analysis examines the webpages and published press notes of four countries’ embassies, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco, and Qatar. These countries were chosen because they have the most robust websites in Spanish, together with the fact that they were the MENA countries whose governments pioneered the use of Twitter as an instrument of digital diplomacy. The article examines the topics and interpretations provided by the press notes published on these embassies’ websites. A discourse analysis methodology with references to the original sources is applied. Topics and interpretations are classified into four types of public diplomacy: media diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, niche diplomacy and nation branding. The conclusion is that the MENA countries studied neglect digital diplomacy on their websites in Spain, missing out on the opportunities it represents. The apparently four most digitized embassies in this group have errors on their webpages and often only publish messages from their respective foreign ministries, focusing on regional and internal issues rather than on their bilateral relationship with Spain. This is especially true of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.Esta investigación analiza las páginas web de embajadas de países del grupo MENA con presencia en España, con el fin de comprobar si practican la diplomacia digital. Dicha actividad es una herramienta de diplomacia pública de bajo coste y amplio alcance. El análisis abarca dos años (2020-2022) protagonizados por la pandemia Covid, que impulsó la digitalización de muchos sectores. El artículo contribuye a la literatura sobre diplomacia digital árabe e israelí y sobre diplomacia digital ejercida por embajadas. Se realiza un análisis exploratorio de las páginas web y un análisis más detallado del contenido de las webs de las embajadas de cuatro países: Arabia Saudí, Israel, Marruecos y Catar. Se eligen estos países porque son los que presentan páginas más funcionales y en español, unido a ser los primeros del grupo cuyos gobiernos utilizaron Twitter como instrumento de diplomacia digital. El artículo examina de qué temas hablan y qué interpretaciones aportan las notas de prensa publicadas en las webs de las embajadas. Se aplica el método de análisis del discurso con referencias a las fuentes originales. Temas y argumentos se clasifican en cuatro tipos de diplomacia pública: mediática, cultural, de nicho y de marca-país. Se concluye que la diplomacia digital de las páginas web de las embajadas del grupo MENA en España está descuidada. Se desaprovechan las oportunidades que esta actividad representa. Las cuatro embajadas aparentemente más digitalizadas tienen errores en sus páginas y se limitan en gran parte a publicar mensajes de las cancillerías, centrándose en cuestiones de tipo regional e internas y más en la relación bilateral con España. Esto ocurre especialmente en los casos de Arabia Saudí y Catar

Political discourses for global audiences: the media framing of the “clash of civilizations” debate

To a great extent, cultural confrontation has replaced the ideological battles of the Cold War. During the 1990s, and particularly since 11 September 2001, Islamic fundamentalist groups have attacked the political and cultural control exercised by the West, engendering a climate of constant conflict which feeds on reasons that are both old and new: old bones of contention, like the conflict between Jews and Palestinians; and new ones, like those arising out of the “war on terror” or the so-called “cartoon crisis”. Although violent actions are mainly rejected by international public opinion, there is no doubt that potential confrontations are brewing on the level of values and ways of understanding society

La diplomacia pública estadounidense de la "guerra contra el terror": análisis y evaluación de su influencia en la prensa española

Public diplomacy is an international political communication activity that experienced renewed importance in the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The War on Terror promoted by the Bush Administration was accompanied by the implementation of public diplomacy strategies designed to reinforce the fight against terrorism and to diminish the levels of anti-Americanism, especially in the Muslim world, through the exercise of soft power. The object of this thesis is, in the first place, to study public diplomacy as an international political communication activity. In the second place, to carry out empirical research that, resorting to framing theory as a methodological tool, analyzes and evaluates the influence of Bush¿s declarations and speeches, as a part of American mediatic diplomacy, in the Spanish press, in two case studies on the War on Terror (the first case study spans the period from 9/11 to November 2001, and the second, the months prior to the Iraq War). To do so, the content of this thesis is set out in six chapters. The first chapter presents a theoretical framework of public diplomacy, the second chapter explains the methodology that is used in the empirical study and the third chapter offers a context for the case studies where that methodology is applied. Chapters four, five and six constitute the empirical part of the work: in the first two the results of the analysis of mediatic diplomacy in two specific periods of the War on Terror are exposed, and, in the last, an evaluation of its influence based on the results of the analysis and on the consideration of other relevant factors is performed

La diplomacia pública estadounidense de la "guerra contra el terror": análisis y evaluación de su influencia en la prensa española

Public diplomacy is an international political communication activity that experienced renewed importance in the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The War on Terror promoted by the Bush Administration was accompanied by the implementation of public diplomacy strategies designed to reinforce the fight against terrorism and to diminish the levels of anti-Americanism, especially in the Muslim world, through the exercise of soft power. The object of this thesis is, in the first place, to study public diplomacy as an international political communication activity. In the second place, to carry out empirical research that, resorting to framing theory as a methodological tool, analyzes and evaluates the influence of Bush¿s declarations and speeches, as a part of American mediatic diplomacy, in the Spanish press, in two case studies on the War on Terror (the first case study spans the period from 9/11 to November 2001, and the second, the months prior to the Iraq War). To do so, the content of this thesis is set out in six chapters. The first chapter presents a theoretical framework of public diplomacy, the second chapter explains the methodology that is used in the empirical study and the third chapter offers a context for the case studies where that methodology is applied. Chapters four, five and six constitute the empirical part of the work: in the first two the results of the analysis of mediatic diplomacy in two specific periods of the War on Terror are exposed, and, in the last, an evaluation of its influence based on the results of the analysis and on the consideration of other relevant factors is performed