ABSTRACT
Engagement and relationship-building have emerged as the new bedrock of the new media-enabled communication networks and Public Diplomacy in the 21st century. With new technology increasingly re-defining public opinion (PO) and having an impact on governments and their policies, states have been busy focusing on nation-branding and image-building exercises which they perceive would offer them more opportunities while getting them more visibility and popularity on the international stage. There are also related issues – noticeable in the new media-driven ecology – like manipulation of PO, the new public activism, propaganda engaged in by national leaders, and the glocal nature of domestic and foreign events and developments, which are highlighted in this chapter. These are some of the key concepts the readers can expect in this book with respect to India, the US, and China. This chapter also briefly examines the role of traditional media in shaping political communication and in setting agendas in the past for drawing the reader’s attention to the fact that many features that we associate with the current new media landscape – manipulation of POs and their disruptive dimensions – are hardly novel: their origins can be traced back to the time when traditional media was dominating the key lines of communication.
