Is State Dept. Engaging MidEast Publics Through Blogs and YouTube?

I dearly hope this interview turns out to be a hoax:

"Q&A - Karen Hughes" - interview by Tara Coop, the American-Statesman (Austin, TX), 18 February 2007

WASHINGTON — When Karen Hughes traveled to Mexico last week, she took a mini-digital camcorder with her to post videos of the trip.

These days, even the U.S. State Department is blogging.

Hughes' video blogs are one way the State Department seeks to improve America's image overseas. It's an acknowledgement that while terrorism materializes in violent attacks, it's rooted in anti-American ideas and perceptions. The department is trying to challenge those ideas before they take root.

It's why Hughes, the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, hired a half-dozen Arabic speakers to surf international blogs and post messages that counter "propaganda and rumors with facts," she said.

It's also why her office loaned the latest crop of State Department exchange students mini-camcorders. The students recorded their American experiences and will post the videos to YouTube.

"There's an information explosion, and we're competing for attention and credibility in the midst of that explosion," Hughes said....

[begin interview transcript:]

American-Statesman: On Iraq, people really want to know what are we doing to improve the situation. In your mind, what can be accomplished before the administration's term ends?

Karen Hughes: I view my job as outreach.

I've been to many, many Islamic countries — I've been to almost three dozen countries now. What public diplomacy does, it's really people programs. It's exchange programs; it's cultural programs.

We've done some cultural preservation work in Iraq, for example, to show our commitment to their heritage and history and preservation of it.

We're (also) trying to do people-to-people exchanges with Iran, even though we don't have relations with their government.

We just took the U.S. wrestling team to Tehran and we brought our first groups of exchange participants over to America from Iran. We're going to be doing more of that this year.

So I'm particularly focused on . . . trying to put in place things for the long run.

[Q:] Are there any parts of the strategy that deal with the sectarian differences in Iraq?

[A:] We have a very significant exchange program with Iraq.

And we work to bring people of all different sects, Sunni, Shia and Kurd, on that exchange program. I just met this week with two women from Iraq and the ambassador. And they're working to try and build civil society in Iraq.

We have a lot of different programs. These women are working to provide support and counseling for fellow women, many of whom have lost family members and obviously are dealing with the fear of living amidst this violence. We've got a lot of young (Iraqi) leaders coming over here. . . .

I'm absolutely convinced our exchange programs have been the most important public diplomacy tool of the last 50 years.

We can measure it; we can interview people. We know that when they come here and see America for themselves, they all say the same thing — they say their lives are forever changed.

And their views of our country are changed.

We are working to make our exchanges more strategic. We're inviting more people who have wide circles of influence — clerics — we've brought clerics over from Jordan and from Saudi Arabia, and teachers, journalists — because again the media has such an impact.

[Q:] Is TV still the main outreach? Even beyond the Internet?

[A:] We just a few weeks ago, for the first time, engaged in Arabic on blogs. We have what's called here a "digital outreach team" . . . that is actively going on the Arabic blogs and responding to misinformation and disinformation and propaganda and rumors with facts. And we're very above board that it's the digital outreach team of the State Department.

[Q:] How many people are on the team?

[A:] I think it's about four or five, and they're supervised by a foreign service officer. And they are all Arabic speakers that do that. Then we have one young man in the rapid response center who goes on the Web sites and monitors and watches and surfs. . . .

You asked me about measuring success. I saw a proverb . . . that talked about "planting a tree under whose shade you would not sit." In many ways, I feel like that's what I'm doing. Most of my work, public diplomacy work, is really long-term work.

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The reason for your disgust is not so self evident as you think - at least not for me. It seems to me Hughes is using emerging technologies to disseminate information and begin dialoges. What's your objection?

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