The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy is charged with appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics. It is also charged with increasing support for and understanding of public diplomacy. The Commission conducts studies, inquiries, and meetings, and assembles and disseminates information, white papers, reports, and other publications, to the President, the Secretary of State, the Congress, and the public. The Advisory Commission was informally established in 1946 as the Advisory Committee on Radio Programming. It was formally established as the Advisory Commission on Information in 1948 by the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, commonly known as the Smith-Mundt Act. In 1977, it merged with the Advisory Commission on Educational and Cultural Affairs and was renamed the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.