TWITTER PUBLIC AND DIGITAL DIPLOMACY BY THE UNITED STATES IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

This thesis examines the effectiveness of U.S. public and digital diplomacy on Twitter. The research highlights significant communication challenges due to cultural and political differences. Negative comments hinder effective dialogue, underscoring the need for strategy revisions and increased engagement to improve the U.S. image. The embassy relied heavily on consensus-building strategies to promote cultural and educational relations and convey messages aligned with the U.S. vision. The second most common strategy was a media-based approach, focusing on one-way communication. The study also found that the U.S. The embassy heavily relies on hashtags to organise and classify posts on the X platform. The research found that hashtags are essential in increasing visibility and engagement with posts by facilitating their discovery and interaction. Two types of hashtags were identified: content-specific hashtags that clearly describe the topics and trending hashtags that help increase post visibility and boost likes and comments. Additionally, the embassy sometimes uses tweet threads to explain large and complex topics, such as U.S. positions on international issues or to elaborate on the history of U.S.-Saudi relations, enhancing storytelling and gradual information delivery. Regarding comments and relationship-building, the findings showed weak interaction with the embassy's posts, and most comments were negative, reflecting significant challenges in convincing the public of the messages conveyed by the U.S. Embassy. Despite the limited engagement with the embassy's posts, this may reflect dissatisfaction with certain U.S. policies among the public.