The Soft Power Differential: Mass Communication and Network Communication

Throughout the post-9/11 period, public diplomacy became increasingly linked to discussions of soft power or how to influence others through persuasion rather than force. Observers claimed that ineffective U.S. public diplomacy was depleting the U.S. ability to exercise its soft power in the international arena. However, while U.S. analysts lamented the decline in U.S. soft power, the soft power of nonstate actors, particularly advocacy of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), appeared to be growing. Given the inherent role of communication in the notion of soft power, this chapter explores the communication approaches of the two actors as a means for understanding the soft power differential. Post-9/11 U.S. public diplomacy appeared to be trying to “wield” soft power by relying primarily on a mass communication approach and transmission strategy. In contrast, NGOs were creating soft power through a network communication approach and connective strategy. The analysis suggests that those who master relationship-building and networking strategies will command communication power in the global communication era. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.