MBR School of Communication at AUD kicks off its academic events

The lecture was delivered by Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III, Dean and Walther H. Annenberg Chair in Communication, at the University of Southern California; the institution with which AUD is collaborating.

The lecture took place on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008, on the AUD campus. Among the attendees were Dr. Lance de Masi, AUD's President, Mr. Elias Bou Saab, AUD's Executive Vice- President, Dr. Jihad Nader, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Mr. Ali M. Jaber, Dean of The MBR School of Communication, and AUD faculty, administrative bodies and students. Paul Sutphin, U.S. Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, and the USC delegation that accompanied Dr. Wilson in his visit to AUD, including Dr. Carola Weil, Associate Dean for Planning and Strategic Initiatives at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Professor Philip Seib, Professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, headed the guest-list, along with other prominent dignitaries from the media sector in the region.

Dean Jaber delivered the opening remarks stressing on the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Vice-President, and Ruler of Dubai, and its realization by way of academic ventures, such as that of The MBR School of Communication at AUD and its mission.

He asserted:

"The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Communication at The American University in Dubai is under a clear mandate from His Highness the Ruler of Dubai to go out and seek the brightest and most interesting students from across the Arab world, and provide them with the best education there is in communication and journalism."

He continued, "We are to do that with total disregard to their religion, gender and nationality."

Dean Jaber then announced the faculty members who have joined the newly established School and provided an overview on its curriculum. He also acknowledged the significance of this academic collaboration between USC and AUD and revealed one of its ultimate objectives in establishing a Center for the study of Media and Society at AUD.

Dr. Wilson, in turn, spoke of "public diplomacy" as a response to globalization, information revolution, economic uncertainty and the strategic shifts in world power. Moreover, he explained how public diplomacy may be a tactic for governments, yet warned against its inevitable outcome of causing the setback of nations, if misused.

He moved on to highlight some of the notions, that The Center for Public Diplomacy of The Annenberg School of Communication addresses, of which are the concepts of "hard power," or the power to coerce people to do what you want, and that of the "soft power," or the power to influence people through persuasion, and their influential outcome when combined together, or what can be referred to as the "smart power."

He then elaborated on the "Quad," or the four-sided relationship that countries are to maintain with their respective governments, private sectors, universities and non-profit organizations, to better help experience successful global innovation within the international relations field.

Furthermore, he dwelled on the means by which Dubai can further develop its reputation as an emerging global media hub to nurture the international and local press through the incentives provided by certain institutions, such as Dubai Media City.

He also asseverated, "Dubai could become the gateway to global knowledge about public diplomacy," if it were to create new institutions where different stakeholders from the UAE, the region and around the world, could come together to discuss critical issues of the role of media in society.

Finally, he concluded the lecture by stressing, "Information and technology are important, but it is leadership and vision, informed by ethics, that makes a country great and successful in the modern era."

He added, "Public diplomacy, traditional diplomacy, and the World Wide Web are simply tools that can be used to advance, or retard, the development of the human spirit."