Svensk "Digital Diplomati" -En studie om den diplomatiska kommunikationen på de sociala medierna

Sammanfattning: As part of the 2013 foreign proposal Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt announced that the Swedish embassies were to be obliged to be present on Facebook and Twitter. Today you can find all the Swedish embassies on social media and one of the aims is to engage directly with citizens by posting updates regarding Sweden. The Internet is enabling new approaches to diplomatic communication. This case study aims to see how digital diplomacy has changed the diplomatic communication with the public. The study is constructed by four dimension; diplomatic language, open/closed diplomacy, thoughtfulness and representation. These dimensions are to clarify the analysis and to operationalize the concept digital diplomacy. These dimensions are inspired of traditional and modern theories of diplomacy and social media. The main empirical material in the study consists of interviews with sixteen Swedish embassies and with the head of social media at the Swedish foreign ministry. The study concludes that Sweden has left the starting point of digital diplomacy and that it has had an influence on Swedish diplomatic communication, not only the external but also the internal. Digital diplomacy has opened up the communication and made the language more accessible, but in the same time complicated for thoughtfulness and representation.