technology for foreign policy purposes that has been pondered. According to this author, planning is required to define standards of form and use of technologies and communications aligned with the foreign policy of each country, and all of this would be within the framework of what is digital public diplomacy. Up to this point, the contributions to the concept of digital public diplomacy have been outlined; however, it is a concept in development and in full evolution. Thus, from a broad perspective, this study proposes that digital public diplomacy can be understood as the access, use and appropriation of resources for interaction, communication, collaboration and creation of content that Web 2.0 and 3.0 provides to those responsible for state diplomacy who seek to approach their national and international audiences, offering them spaces to express their opinions regarding issues in the diplomatic field.

1.2. The global citizen

Martínez (2004) pointed out that a type of global community citizen was being developed in the area of serious problems regarding human life, among which were Human Rights, Development, Discrimination, War, Globalization, and the Environment. These issues were no longer the exclusive concern of states and official institutions or the media; along these same lines, he pointed out the concept of the communicative ecosystem of Martín (1999) and indicated that this was invigorated by the use of new information and communication technologies that promoted new ways of coming together and new sensitivities, but also the interconnection of conflicts and causes. For his part, Araya (2001) evaluated new and distinctive features of groupings and citizen activism that were supported by virtual communication, and the most relevant aspect was that the analysis of citizenship had to incorporate those new forms of associativity. This author considered that the communicative exchanges induced by these technologies promoted a new structure of social systems.

Moreover, Araya (2001) paid special attention to the transnationalization of social networks and the exercise of citizen practices beyond the territory defined by a state. Using this approach, it is considered that the global citizen is one who acquires a transnational character, and that his reality is not only framed by what happens within his borders. Instead, he acquires consciousness and knowledge of new realities and is interested in issues that affect humanity and the planet in general. The Internet has helped information to flow more quickly and with less control by governments and the traditional media. In addition, communication is less vertical and has become more horizontal. Colombo (2005) analyzed the influence of Internet on the political domain, especially its potential for citizen participation in public decision-making. According to his work, communication and information technologies, especially the Internet, are facilitating these practices by advancing new ways of carrying out politics, with more extensive and direct information and greater communication between representatives and those represented. Castells (2000) also made reference to how the international scene was being aided by the Internet in the dissemination of information and in the organization and mobilization of transnational movements that emerged to defend women’s causes, human rights, environmental conservation, and political democracy. Thus, it is clear that the global citizen is one who accesses, uses and takes advantage of the Internet with global consciousness, and who has a particular way of practicing her citizenship. This citizen also expresses herself on the net and “seeks to exercise a kind of counter-power and pressure for the achievement of common objectives of social and collective interests that even surpass politics in the strict sense of the term, encompassing more global concerns that go beyond the vote and the election of leaders” (Pineda, 2010): 32). Moreover, within the framework of what is analyzed in this work, the spaces on