Graphic taken from the blog "Global PR: does the PR paradigm work across cultures?"
Much like my blog post from two weeks ago, where we looked at the practice of public relations in countries in South & Southeast Asia, China, Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, this week too, we are surveying additional countries, this time in different European regions and then looking at cases studies that serve as examples of international public relations in action.
The launching point for both Freitag and Stokes (2009) and Alaimo (2017) is once again Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural characteristics. As we learned early on in the course, these metrics are not the end all. They sometimes fall short, they sometimes are wrong, and they inherently are based on Western measurement. But still, they are a tool. When the authors dissect a culture according to this tool, they also offer examples of how each country expresses these traits and this is useful for public relations students.
What I found most interesting was how the textbook authors used history to provide context for today’s practices, while being sure to point out different countries’ idiosyncrasies.
Both textbooks pointed out how old Communist countries were left with a legacy of distrust. This spills over into how citizens view government, business, media, voluntary organizations. For public relations, overcoming suspicions of propaganda and censorship is a challenge. At the same time, Freitag and Stokes noted that public relations has helped promote social awareness during the transition as countries moved from one socio-economic and political system to a very different one. Alaimo only focuses on Russia, but Freitag and Stokes brought out unique public relations differentiators for Poland (i.e., their original theory in 2001 regarding “transitional public relations” which was specific to post-socialist countries) and for Hungary (how in 1968 one public relations textbook spoke about applying capitalistic public relations practices towards socialist economic conditions).
How Public Relations is practiced in Poland from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBgkAlayPAk
It is important, I think, for the academic world to figure out how to not categorize theories, models and concepts which originate outside of the United States as narrowly only applying to certain circumstances, even if they do. This is because unless those theories which apply only to market economies or democracies are also categorized as narrowly applying to certain situations too, then we are back where we have been since the beginning of the semester – measuring everyone with our own measuring stick.
One of the points that Freitag and Stokes made about Russia’s “Black PR” jumped out at me. If you accept the premise that there is a continuum from public relations to deliberate social media usage by non-professional practitioners, then this idea – which has to do with politics and denigrating opposition – is in essence a precursor to the misinformation campaigns Russia applied to popular social media platforms in the United States for the last several elections.
Alaimo looks not only at Central and Eastern Europe, but other parts of Europe. One of her observations jumped out, and that is that the definition of public relations itself varies across the region. Public means more public sphere than publics and so is more about communication management. This makes sense to me. She also points out one of the models that European PR scholars have identified is “reflective,” and that is useful in understanding one’s organization’s own impact today and tomorrow. As with the example of Poland, Hungary and Russia, here, too we are seeing contributions to the thought around public relations which ought to be recognized in a wider frame. Perhaps as we measure individualistic vs collective or feminine vs masculine, we ought to be measuring how reflective or not a culture is?
Tying back to criticism we hear in class about textbook treatment of the Middle East two weeks ago, when Alaimo decided to focus only on France and Italy out of the grouping on Western Europe because they were “most important,” I had to question, Why? By what measure? A company with a footprint in certain countries can decide which is most important to business needs, but for students of public relations, isn’t that a decision which could be flexible? Which countries offer interesting lessons, which are in a period of growth, etc.?
At the same time, Alaimo’s grouping of Germanic countries seemed thoughtful and her assessment of Sweden’s sophisticated public relations was important. But I wondered if it could be taken further. That is, if students are taught not to approach each country for how a public relations practitioner (American or otherwise) can ply his or her trade in this other locale, but for the lessons he or she can learn from, take home and apply elsewhere, wouldn’t that ring true as more of an international approach?
In the case of selling tourism, whether Dubai or Lebanon, this is a different issue, because the focus is on selling one culture to others, and if the target audience is Western, then embracing the idea of integrating concepts grown elsewhere into one’s strategic planning is less of an issue.
Lastly, the other two case studies – dealing with internal public information campaign in Malaysia and another for NuSkin, a multinational, which had missteps also in Malaysia – tie back more to earlier weeks, both because they deal with a different region in the world, but also because they tie back to the basics: Know thy audience.
Public relations two decades later, NuSkin Malaysia's Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/NuSkinMalaysiaOfficial, has over 50,000 followers
Alaimo, K. (2017). Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication. New York: Routledge.
Frietag, A. R. & Stokes, A. S. (2009). Global Public Relations: Spanning Borders, Spanning Cultures. New York: Routledge
The interaction of journalism and public relations in Russia: A self-perception
Personal relationships as a foundation for public relations in Croatia
Fifteen Cases in International Public Relations
Vision 2020: Multicultural Malaysia’s Campaign for Developlment
Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing
Attracting Tourism to a New Lebanon
Public Relations in New Market Development: The Influence of Converging Multi-Cultural Factors
A Museum in Search of Identity: Finding and Redefining the Image of a Man and the Museum Named for Him