Lagom eller Pondus? - En kvalitativ studie om hur olika diskurser problematiserar en nations kommunikativa arbete inom offentlig diplomati.

Sammanfattning: Public diplomacy is constantly developing in line with the ever-changing field of communications. The main focus of academic research in the field tends to gravitate towards the social sciences rather than the communication sciences. The aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge of the communicative challenges that public diplomacy is facing as the intersection between internal and external publics has become more inexplicit. A discourse analysis has been applied to empirical material gathered from the Swedish Ministry of foreign affairs’ (the Swedish MFA) social media channels and from focus group interviews with young Swedish citizens. Several similarities and differences were discovered between how the Swedish MFA and the domestic population perceive and talk about Sweden’s foreign policy. The results indicate a need to widen the perception of relevant stakeholders for the public diplomacy, calling for a greater attention to the dome-stic population. Since the world is more interconnected, both online and offline, public diplomacy will benefit from viewing the domestic public as ambassadors for the nation. However, this requires active listening and communication inwards to strengthen the relationship with the domestic public. Consequently, the Swedish MFA needs to incorporate an awareness of auto-communicative effects when messages are sent via social media to an international audience. In summary, these conclusions call for an integrated and holistic view of the internal and external political communication regarding a nation’s foreign policies to minimize the risk that dissimilar perceptions undermine the credibility of the nation and its public diplomacy. A communication model has been designed to illustrate the complex network of actors that have an influence on the success of the public diplomacy.