From left to right: Stefania Romenti (president of EUPRERA), Winni Johansen, Jérôme Chariatte, and Wim Elving.

At the conference of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) in Prague (20-23 September 2023), Jérôme Chariatte, senior teaching and research assistant at the DCM, has received the "PhD Award for Excellent Doctoral Thesis" for his dissertation entitled "The contribution of different communication channels and sub-state actors to country perception in today’s globalized and digitalized society – a public diplomacy listening approach". The thesis had been supervised by Prof. Dr. Diana Ingenhoff.

According to jury members Winni Johansen and Wim Elving, the award-winning thesis (179 pages) addresses new, relevant, and fascinating topics: listening within public diplomacy, as well as civic engagement across countries, and the role of sub-actors such as cities for the country image and the branding of a country. In addition, the relationship between place branding and public diplomacy in the digital sphere is addressed and extended by linking it to concepts like global governance and social responsibility. Furthermore, the study contributes with combining new and multiple methods and ways to listen and to measure country image and public diplomacy that take into account the globalized and digitalized context of todays’ public diplomacy efforts.