The Centre for European Perspective, together with the U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia is organizing a three-day training designed to enhance the digital press and public diplomacy capacities of government communicators.
Governments have been uniquely challenged by the proliferation of digital communication channels. On one hand, they have never had as much access to domestic and foreign publics – access that they can use to understand and inform their audiences. On the other, the proliferation and democratization of the digital media space has increased their narrative competition, and opened them up to a number of consequential challenges, including proactively destructive counter-narratives and disinformation. Governments that are active on social networks therefore require new knowledge and experience, different abilities and skills that are necessary to effectively operate within the information space.
For this purpose, a fourth iteration of the training, taking place between 19th and 21st June 2019 in Bohinj, Slovenia, will recruit government communicators from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The training will cover a range of topics from public relations and public diplomacy theory to practical application of digital tools.
The project is a result of a joint cooperation between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the scope of the International Development Cooperation and the Centre for European Perspective.