Please cite this article in press as: Golan, G. J., & Viatchaninova, E. Government Social Responsibility in Public Diplomacy: Russia’s strategic use of advertorials. Public Relations Review (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.09.011 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model PUBREL-1186; No. of Pages 3 Public Relations Review xxx (2013) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Government Social Responsibility in Public Diplomacy: Russia’s strategic use of advertorials Guy J. Golan * , Evhenia Viatchaninova Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, 215 University Place, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Advertorial Public diplomacy International public relations Government social responsibility Russia Corporate social responsibility a b s t r a c t The current study analyzes Russia’s use of the advertorial as a tool of direct communication with readers of the Washington Post and The Times of India. The study introduces the concept of government social responsibility (GSR) and discusses its role in government to foreign citizen public diplomacy. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The post Cold War era was marked by the emergence of a record number of nations that adopted democratic systems but were not necessarily democracies (Levitsky & Way, 2002). The era also gave birth to the globalization of financial markets (Sassen, 1998) and the emergence of the Internet and social media that would forever change global mass communications (Bennett, 2003). This new era would mark a turning point in the field of public diplomacy (Gilboa, 2001) with a shift away from the global persuasion model and toward Nye’s (1990) soft power engagement approach. Along with soft power, public diplomacy scholarship has also focused much attention on the powerful role of mass media in shaping global public opinion (Wanta, Golan, & Lee, 2004). Such a focus led many scholars to investigate mediated public diplomacy campaigns in which governments attempt to shape and influence its framing in foreign media (Entman, 2008; Sheafer & Gabay, 2009). The United States shifted much of its public diplomacy efforts to the promotion of democracy and democratic values around the world (Cull, 2009). However, other nations such as China and Russia focus their mediated public diplomacy efforts toward defining their global role and on framing their own brand of democracy. The current study examines Russia’s mediated public diplomacy efforts targeting two distinct foreign publics. Using the advertorial as a mediated public diplomacy tactics, Russia promoted both its democratic and its global citizenship frames to newspaper readers in the United States and in India. The focus of the study on these two nations is based on the United States role as the leader of the democratic world and on the fact that India is the world’s largest democracy. The current study introduces the concept of government social responsibility (GSR). While corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a key area of public relations research (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001) few studies examined how government social responsibility is communicated to foreign audiences. Similar in their organizational structure and goals to corporations (Anholt, 2010), governments attempt to articulate their values to various stakeholders in an attempt to attract foreign investment and tourism, gain favorable global public opinion, and build mutually beneficial relationships with foreign publics (Kotler & Gertner, 2002). International public relations and public diplomacy scholars often examine such governmental global engagement programs as cultural and educational exchanges, foreign aid and international broadcasting and press agentry. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 315 443 1911; fax: +1 315 443 5436. E-mail addresses: gjgolan@syr.edu (G.J. Golan), evhenia.v@gmail.com (E. Viatchaninova). 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.09.011