public diplomacy in contemporary world politics

Public diplomacy can be defined as; manipulation of public opinion through mass media for political goals, it can be either honest or dishonest, for long term or short term. Also public diplomacy can be used to change foreign public opinions as well as the domestic opinion.

As an example we can take Turkey’s image on abroad. Generally, traditional, practical historic expressions, broadcast and entertainment media in European countries tend to introduce Turkey “Islamic”, beyond Europe and repressive. For example; the movie Midnight Express’ negative effects on Turkey and Turks are inevitable and the damage caused by the movie still continues to effect the image of Turkey.
Although the prime minister ( Recep Tayyip Erdogan) ‘s wife’s scarf reinforced the “Islamic” impression about Turkey, Turkey is neither as “religious” as European people perceived nor militarist, repressive and easternal. There is a huge gap between the reality and the image.
Therefor, as public diplomacy Turkey started to organise various activities in different countries.

To put an end to the lingering conflict between Turkey and Armenia, Turkey has billed a film festival in Armenia. At the same time, one of the other aims of the festival is to introduce the real Turkey to Armenia. One of the festival’s organizers, Gevorg Vanian stated:
“Such a dialogue is important because we know only one Turkey, the one that we have created based on our dogmatic perception of that country; whereas we have to see the real one - today’s Turkey, which we, practically, know nothing about,"

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav032610a.shtml

There is an another example to this is the festivals which takes place in USA every year in New York (Turkish Days in New York), Washington DC (Washington Turkish Festival), Boston ( Boston Turkish Art and Culture Festival) and Houston ( Houston Turkish Festival).

festcom@atahouston.org
http://turkishdaysinny.org

www.turkishfestival.org