New Media or “the Last Three Feet” in Africa?

Abstract

“Tweets,” “friending,” “fans,” and “followers” were the buzzwords that fluttered around the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (AF/PDPA) during the summer of 2009.¹ The gospel of new media had arrived. AF/PDPA had been notified that there would be two major events that would require an overhaul of public diplomacy in Africa: President Barack Obama’s speech in Accra, Ghana, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s multination tour of Africa. To support these two events and the U.S. government objectives behind them, AF/PDPA would have to coordinate an interdepartmental and interagency public diplomacy effort that could keep up with the objectives of the Obama administration. In the midst of the extensive planning for what would prove to be a busy summer for AF/PDPA, the office reached toward new media.