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A quest for dialogue in international broadcasting

Germany’s public diplomacy targeting Arab audiences

Stuttgart Media University, Germany

This article analyses German public diplomacy efforts via international broadcasting to the Arab world post-9/11. After defining the field’s major relevant concepts and models and pointing out the conceptual convergence of public relations and public diplomacy, the article presents a critical analysis of the requirements of dialogue drawing on Habermas’s (1984) Theory of Communicative Action. For the time being, the question whether Germany’s broadcast public diplomacy in the Arab world is based on ‘dialogue’, as has been posited by the main protagonists, needs to be answered cautiously. What is visible is a determination of Deutsche Welle to at least present a quest for dialogue as a projection of the country’s national values, policies, self-image and underlying myth. The invocation of ‘dialogue’ via DW may reflect a reassertion of the very self-image Germany feels most comfortable with: that of the Open-minded Society of Consensus as the country’s grand narrative.

Key Words: Arab world • Deutsche Welle • dialogue • Germany • public diplomacy • public relations

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