Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2017)

The Negotiation of Cultural Identity. An Analysis of Public Diplomacy Strategies in A Cross-situational Context

Authors
He Gong, Guangjin Tu
Corresponding Author
He Gong
Available Online May 2017.
DOI
10.2991/icadce-17.2017.26How to use a DOI?
Keywords
cultural identity; public diplomacy; microblogging; situational theory
Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that cultural diversity is a critical aspect of public diplomacy seeking to communicate with international publics. However, little research-based evidence exists about what cultural diversity means to practitioners. This study examines how the attributions of cultural identity are negotiated in the direct and dialogical (online) conversations among the U.S. Embassy and Chinese netizens. It captured and analyzed 1,239 tweets and all the comments that appeared under the Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) handle of the U.S. Embassy during the observation period. Within the framework of constructionism theory and intercultural public relations, this article asserts that, in a cross-situations where the external publics whose cultural identifications differ from those of the organization, issues representing cultural conflicts may arouse more negative responses. Findings indicate that compared to neutral topics, conflict-related information correlates with a higher proportion of negative comments. Therefore, this study shed light on the understanding of the power of the situational theory in predicting which issues are likely to create active publics.

Copyright
© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2017)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
May 2017
ISBN
10.2991/icadce-17.2017.26
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/icadce-17.2017.26How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - He Gong
AU  - Guangjin Tu
PY  - 2017/05
DA  - 2017/05
TI  - The Negotiation of Cultural Identity. An Analysis of Public Diplomacy Strategies in A Cross-situational Context
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2017)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 123
EP  - 130
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icadce-17.2017.26
DO  - 10.2991/icadce-17.2017.26
ID  - Gong2017/05
ER  -