Digital Cultural Diplomacy: From Content Providers to Opinion Makers
Identifying and describing major transformations of cultural diplomacy in the conditions of digitalisation and platformization, the chapter proposes a new typology of cultural diplomacy actors. Focusing on the roles they play in the global digital space and the power they can accumulate to exert impact, the chapter explores cultural diplomacy actors from the perspective of their involvement in the processes of digital cross-cultural communications. It argues that traditional government actors of cultural diplomacy in the digital realm increasingly become more dependent on cultural institutions and communities who serve as key cultural content providers. Furthermore, their activities in the digital domain are shaped by interfaces, digital capabilities, and algorithms of dominant communication platforms, designed by transnational corporations as main digital infrastructure builders. Finally, they operate in a very dynamic communication space populated by various opinion makers, including individual influencers, who gain in certain cases a significant diplomatic power to shape global discourses. This typology is designed to account for such variables as functions, dependency, and agency. First, it interrogates and explores key roles different stakeholders choose to play while communicating in the global media space. Second, it explores how much political clout they are capable of generating and to what extent they become dependent from other actors in a highly networked online environment. Providing provocative illustrations that help describe major functions of each actor, the chapter exposes a highly saturated, heterogeneous and complex nature of global cross-cultural communications that requires a more nuanced actors’ typology to help its deeper analysis.
Citation:
Grincheva, Natalia. ''Digital Cultural Diplomacy: From Content Providers to Opinion Makers.'' The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy, edited by Corneliu Bjola, and Ilan Manor, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024, pp. 194-211, ISBN / ISSN: 9780192859198.
