This week’s readings offered a plethora of guidelines and examples for a number of different countries and while the textbooks offered roundups, the additional readings overlapped less. For that reason, I've treated them separately.
Each country is different, no doubt. The textbook authors made sure to explain how the countries they chose to profile fit the different parameters spelled out by Hofstede’s taxonomy; Freitag and Stokes (2009), though, noted that Hofstede himself chose to group together the Arab countries, despite there being some pointed differences among them.
While Freitag and Stokes (2009) focused on traditional media, Alaimo (2017) mentioned social media more. At the same time, none of the textbook authors consistently offered a view on how practitioners ought to incorporate social media into their public relations strategy. In Freitag and Stokes' (2009) defense, it might have been because their content was dated.
Much has changed on the social media landscape since the book was published.
Alaimo’s book was published in 2017; though more recent, the statistics she cited have very much changed. For instance, she included a 2015 study that said that “nine percent of Indians have active social media accounts” (p. 247), but SANNAM S4, a company which helps other organizations enter world markets, notes that one in three Indians access the internet, that 97% of internet users access it on their phones, two in three smart phone owners use social media, and in 2019 Indians users downloaded over 19 billion apps, more than any other country. This matters. They are active social media users:
India's top social networking sites in 2019, from SANNAM S4
On another page, SANNAM S4 takes a deep dive into India’s social media usage; this kind of information is vital for a public relations strategist trying to figure out the best way to reach segmented audiences. Alaimo (2017) herself notes that the newspapers reach a small elite. So, finding ways to reach people on their phones, in their homes, at their work with tailored messages ought to be embedded in any public relations strategy.
Similarly, in countries like China where government has a hand in shaping messages and consumers are very much aware of this, social media as an active piece of strategic public relations ought to have been incorporated into these discussions on public relations. (Note: only after reading the assignment did I notice that Adaimo (2017) actually thoroughly addresses social media in China, but in Chapter 7, which we were not assigned).
The reason it is important to point out how social media usage has grown so much in each region and country is two-fold. Changed landscapes means practitioners must adapt how they approach different markets. (1) Audiences have changed in scope and in size, which means new and different strategies might be called for; and (2) audiences (and organizations wanting to reach them) have changed in their behaviors. Press agency, while important in many of the countries examined, might take a back seat to utilizing influencers and turning to direct social media dialogue.
Active social network penetration in selected countries as of January 2020, from Statista; click on the graphic to go to the site and open the entire list
In another example, Freitag and Stokes (2009) speak about how Palestinians do not have organized structures for public relations and Adaimo (2017) notes their high reliance on television for news, even though they do not find it credible. He only mentions social media platforms in passing. Middle East Monitor, though, cites a 2019 report to offer up statistics for how much Palestinians use social media, especially for news. It also shows how individuals use it for their own personal public relations: in the story, one recent college graduate learned the skills she needed to market herself on social media, which led to her finding work.
Statistics show us that both more segments and larger quantities of target audiences use social media, and so if the purpose of these readings is to give students a picture of what the countries’ public relations landscape is like, then this needs to be embedded in the pictures students are painted about each country and region. The picture today is vastly different than it was even three years ago.
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The readings, too, covered a lot of territory (pun intended). In many of these areas, the status of public relations is at varying stages of emergence. Each reading served as an example in some way. As mentioned above, for some places it is utilized more for press agency. This can teeter on the precipice of propaganda, as Palmer (2020) discussed in her piece on Kim Jong-un’s sister. One could argue that Israeli athletes described by Carmi and Levental (2019) fulfilled the same function, as in the case of those told to be ready to field questions about war. As I wrote in my first blog, the idea of hasbara is predicated on people from different walks of life serving as brand ambassadors for the country. On the other end of the spectrum of the status of the emerging public relations discipline is the depth of field required to carry out research, as Anani-Bossman and Tella (2017) indicated. While they spoke mostly about the limited kind of research practitioners draw on, e.g., for media monitoring, they emphasized that focusing on the bigger issues of impact and outcome is necessary.
No matter what country one practices in and no matter which aspect of public relations one focuses on, this much is true: public relations professionals much take a strategic approach that takes into consideration the specifics of the environment they are operating in. Having both a historic understanding and an appreciation of the current state of how and where people receive the information that influences their behaviors have both got to be a part of that plan.
Alaimo, K. (2017). Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication. New York: Routledge.
Anani-Bossman, A. and Tella, F. (2017). The use of research by public relations practitioners: A study of selected organisations in Ghana. Communicare. 36(2). 55-74.
Carmi, U. & Levental, O. (2019). Ambassadors in track suits: The public relations function of Israeli delegations to the Olympic Games during the state’s first decade. Sports History Review. 50(1). 17-37.
Frietag, A. R. & Stokes, A. S. (2009). Global Public Relations: Spanning Borders, Spanning Cultures. New York: Routledge
Palmer, L. (2018). North Korea’s new weapon of choice. New Statesman. February 16-22, 2018. p. 18