ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the question of how international organisations (IOs) accommodate and integrate digital technologies into their analogue patterns of public communication. It examines the efforts undertaken by the International Council of Museums, a non-governmental international organisation under formal relations with United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, to update its mandate and restructure itself. The book explores the different ways in which social media have become tools to promote IOs “brand-making” and considers whether these practices are consistent with those of other private and public organisations. It investigates how and to what extent the introduction and adoption of new digital communication and information technologies have affected United Nations processes. The book also examines four challenges – relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and visibility – that have haunted international organisations since the dawn of the digital era.
