| Abstract [eng] |
Means through which states promote their names have first been called propaganda, later public diplomacy, and nowadays these notions are often replaced with the concept of public relations. Yet the ways of promoting a country's name abroad by means of public diplomacy have not been widely analysed, therefore it merits research. The aim of this Master thesis is to analyse the application of public diplomacy for increasing knowledge about a country by analysing one case, i.e. the efforts of the Presidency of the Republic of Lithuania to promote the country's name in the context of an historical event. The objectives are the following: to analyse the notion of public diplomacy and its importance vis-à-vis other means of popularising a country; to analyse what possibilities to promote the country's name the Lithuanian Presidency had during the celebration of the millennium of Lithuania's name, which of those were actually applied, and how successful they were. The following research methods were applied: analysis of scholarly literature; quantitative as well as qualitative content analysis; and an expert interview. The conclusion has been reached that, in the case analysed, the Lithuanian Presidency actively applied public diplomacy, taking measures oriented at publicity through mass media. In particular, the strategy of a "pseudo-event" was chosen, when using symbols an event is created in order to attract media attention. Such an event was the ceremony of celebrating the millennium of Lithuania's name, in which political leaders of thirteen states took part. As the event was rather widely reflected in the media of other countries, one can conclude that it was an example of successful application of the "pseudo-event" strategy as a means of public diplomacy. |
