Digital Diplomacy Apparatus: Awareness and Usage for Digital Economy in Tanzania, 2020.

Abstract

Digital Diplomacy (DD) is now globally regarded as a form of public diplomacy which involves the use of digital technologies and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and the like; by states to enter into communication with foreign publics. This paper is building the argument that one of the diplomatic functions is to enter into communication as the results raise the so-called digital economy. The point of departure for this paper is that, although scholars have said much on the use of digital media in the field of diplomacy and how countries are utilizing these apparatus in the pursuit of their foreign policies, still much is needed to be discussed on how these digital technologies can be used by diplomats to spear heard digital economy of the country in as much as economy is the backbone of many nations if not all. In so doing, the paper examines the awareness on DD apparatus, duration of being aware, uses of DD apparatus and service accessed by the respondent regarding the digital economy in Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design is adopted coupled with purposive sampling technique to obtain data. Quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS version 24, while the qualitative data were analyzed thematically. It was found that majority (86% ) of respondents were aware of Digital Diplomacy apparatus; 75% of the respondents acknowledged that they were aware of the DD apparatus for more than one year past; under the usage of Digital Diplomacy apparatus, 93% of the respondents use DD apparatus. It was generally concluded and recommended that since the majority are aware of DD, knew DD for more than a year, and use DD apparatus then, the government through the ministry of foreign affairs should encourage diplomats to use DD not only for foreign policies but also for digital economic policies.