New Zealand's Digital Diplomacy as a Small State - Narratives and X handle identification

Widespread societal adoption of social media technology, occurring due to the advent of mass internet access, has led to many nation-states using social media for diplomatic purposes, a practice commonly termed ‘digital diplomacy’. However, case studies of small states have been notably scarce in research into state digital diplomacy practice, despite digital diplomacy’s utility for small states as a low-cost foreign policy tool. This research examines the case study of New Zealand. Using inductive analysis, X posts from the accounts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations are discussed to explore how New Zealand’s contemporary digital diplomacy practice aligns with New Zealand’s foreign policy strategy as a small state. In sum, this demonstrates how digital diplomacy has been used by New Zealand to portray the nation as a moral and positive actor – furthering a nation brand developed by NZ Story – and more generally support existing foreign policy. This dataset includes documented narratives from New Zealand X posts, as well as a description of the identity of X handles identified in this research from the period October 23rd - October 28th, 2024 (as account handles can change).

伴随大众互联网的普及，社交媒体技术在社会层面得到广泛应用，诸多主权国家开始将社交媒体用于外交事务，该实践通常被称为“数字外交（digital diplomacy）”。然而，尽管数字外交作为低成本外交政策工具对小型国家颇具价值，但现有针对国家数字外交实践的研究中，小型国家的案例研究仍显著匮乏。本研究以新西兰为案例展开分析：采用归纳分析法，对新西兰对外贸易与国际关系部（Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, MFAT）及新西兰常驻联合国代表团账号发布的X平台帖文进行研讨，以探究新西兰作为小型国家的当代数字外交实践如何契合其外交政策战略。综上，本研究阐明了新西兰如何借助数字外交将本国塑造为兼具道义性与正面形象的行为体——这一形象助力新西兰故事（NZ Story）打造的国家品牌传播，并从更宏观层面支撑既有外交政策。本数据集收录了新西兰官方X平台帖文的可溯源叙事文本，同时包含本研究于2024年10月23日至10月28日期间识别出的X账号主体身份说明（账号ID可能发生变更）。