Media Diplomacy and its Requirements

Following the communications revolution, scholars in various fields strived to investigate the impact of this phenomenon on their specialized areas. Foreign policy and diplomacy is one of the areas affected by the communications revolution and media activities and media diplomacy has taken shape in light of this development. However, the reciprocal influence of diplomacy agents and media on each other and the quality of their relationship has always been debated. Hence, the present article deals with this issue through the following steps. First, the conceptual geography of media diplomacy in the wide area of foreign policy is examined. Second, the relationship between diplomacy and media is discussed and it is shown that this relationship is not one-sided. In other words, although the diplomatic systems of various countries attempt to take advantage of media to boost the interests of their respective country, media shape the thought context of diplomacy decisionmakers (structure-seeking relationship between diplomacy and media). Finally, some guidelines are offered to help media diplomacy succeed.