The role of Media Diplomacy and its effects on public opinion from the perspective of Democratic Participation Theory

Abstract

Media diplomacy is a branch of public diplomacy. It focuses on the stated aspect of the country's policies and its intellectual and political orientations. It presents the country's positions and ideas towards international issues through various media. It aims to form internal and external public opinion on these issues. The media is the other side of media diplomacy. It is an influential tool, and it can turn into a double-edged sword. Therefore, it is essential that those working in politics and diplomacy are aware of the nature of media work and how it affects the public. Many media messages with diplomatic content are wrapped in indirect language, and they can be difficult to understand and absorb quickly because of the ambiguity in their presentation. All of this raises a problem from the perspective of the theory of democratic participation, which is one of the modern theories of communication. This theory calls for the transparent transfer of information and facts to the public, without hiding what is going on behind the scenes, in order to maintain credibility and promote community participation. Public opinion is not built without involving the public and enabling it to express its position on what is happening around it. The study shows that media diplomacy is a soft power that consists of public diplomacy people's diplomacy and cultural diplomacy and that media diplomacy plays a key role in shaping public opinion on the issues that are being discussed.  Transparency of media attitudes and messages، transparency in the presentation of countries and political entities and the formation of public opinion in media diplomacy is considered effective and effective due to the interaction of the parties involved with each other in achieving the desired goals.