.png)
InterMedia has more than a decade’s experience of consulting, analysis, evaluation and research directly or indirectly connected to public diplomacy or on behalf of public diplomacy clients, covering areas like media and communication attitudes and behavior and public opinion. As important, InterMedia’s global reach means that it is able to develop analysis from research among populations worldwide—for example Muslims living throughout Asia and in Europe as well those in the Arab world—or narrowly focused in InterMedia’s niche of difficult-to-access populations. While some governments focus almost exclusively on particular regions of the world, InterMedia’s comprehensive program of research means that it is active year-round in parts of the world—sub-Saharan Africa and South America, for example—that could become diplomatic or security hotspots overnight.
On behalf of its international clients, InterMedia researchers have teamed with local partners over the past 15 years to interview more than 1.3 million people worldwide on a range of communication, media and public opinion issues – surveys typically ask opinions of the United States, Europe and individual European countries, neighboring countries, international and foreign policy issues.
In recent years, InterMedia has conducted research among Muslims in western Europe;a multi-year, multi-method evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the U.S. Department of State’s China Democracy and Rule of Law Program; and a longitudinal evaluation of the State Department’s Youth Exchange & Study (YES) program, a multi-year exchange program that has to date brought more than 3,480 students from across the Islamic world to the United States.
InterMedia PD Focus: Evaluation State Department Programs
InterMedia, in partnership with GDIT, is conducting a year-long multi-country evaluation of the State Department’s public diplomacy efforts. Under the “Advancing Public Diplomacy Impact”, or APDI, project, InterMedia is developing indicators and understanding that will improve the Department’s ability to baseline the current state of target audience attitudes, beliefs and engagement with U.S. public diplomacy activities; to gauge the likely success of future public diplomacy efforts in a given country or social-political environment; and to confidently predict and identify the characteristics of both persuadable and influential audience members who could potentially maximize the overall impact of U.S. public diplomacy efforts.
Measures of Engagement and Impact will look at:
-questions of exposure to PD activities and access to/use of new and traditional media platforms;
-the quality and intensity of response to/engagement with the PD activities;
-any resulting attitude or behavior impact
Counsel of Public Diplomacy Experts
InterMedia developed the Walter Lippmann Public Diplomacy Advisory Committee, a select group of experienced PD practitioners and academics who bring a lifetime of study, practical experience and a research-based approach to the business of communicating with foreign publics and elites. Through its work, the Committee provides collective analysis and objective consultation on tactics, techniques, programs and assessment tools used or being considered for use in engaging foreign audiences on matters of import to the United States.