Abstract
The Arabic-language Facebook page of the Israeli Defense Forces' spokesperson has attracted a massive following in the Arab world and serves as an interesting and unique case study towards understanding the effect of a military public diplomacy initiative. Content analysis of the Facebook page reveals a mixture of power and deterrence messages, with posts designed to emphasize shared values. Analysis of audience engagement with those messages - measured by 'likes', 'shares', comments and negative feedback - surprisingly reveals that shared values' messages generated a similar level of engagement to other messages, which may show that the content does not play a significant role in users' engagement. In addition, the analysis reveals that during periods of heightened intensity in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, followers' engagement and negative feedback rose dramatically. This study provides a unique perspective of the relevance and effectiveness of military public diplomacy in the era of online social networks.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 323-344 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | The Hague Journal of Diplomacy |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- 'likes'
- 'shares'
- Arabic
- Israeli defense forces (idf)
- Military public diplomacy
- Spokesperson
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations