How European public relations men and women perceive the impact of their professional activities

Piet Verhoeven, University of Amsterdam & Noelle Aarts, University of Amsterdam and Wageningen University

Findings in that article are very interesting – an annual survey about trends in the profession public relations showed gender differences. The results showed that female pr practitioners in most countries in Europe think that their influence have less impact than men on the strategic decision making in their organizations. The second founding is that females are more likely to value social media and social networking than men.

People who use social media tend to be:

1.       Social,

2.       Involved

3.       Dedicated

4.       Seeking intimacy

5.       Media smart

Such a skills and experience is more a female style of communication. Women feel more comfortable using social media.

The survey shows big difference of perception by men and women.

Very interesting for me was that there is no significant difference between men and women in Eastern Europe. In the article the reason is explained with transition from communism to the neoliberal economy.

Public relations and Globalization: Building a case for cultural competency in public relations education

Pam Creedon, Mai Al-Khaja
Available online www.sciencedirect.com

The article analyses the importance of adding cultural capability to the list of skills and that it is an opportunity to educate a generation that will accept differences and value a global culture separate from national identity.

Very interesting part of the article is: ‘Understanding the racism: blue eyes/brown eyes’. It is about a third grade teacher – Jane Elliott who tried to explain her students why civil rights leader Martin Luther King had been shot and killed. At the end she discovers that ‘you can create racism. And, as with anything, if you create it, you can destroy it’. It is something like ‘culturally biased test’. At the end the author asks the question: ‘What role could public relations have in creating cultural understanding by helping students explore spaces and places, i.e., social system, different from their own?’

The article also explains the role of education in exposing cultural elitism, providing resent case examples, like – ‘ A non-western perspective of history’, ‘ A non-Western perspective on historical geography’ , ‘A non-Western approach to numbering wars in the Middle East’,’ Journalists need to consult with non-Western historical experts to find parallels and context’, ‘Understanding non-Western culture and religion’. I found the research and the whole idea very interesting.

The last part of the article explains very clearly why the understanding of non-Western culture is important. It shows the need of education about other cultures, about the common mistakes and misunderstandings of Arab and Muslim history, culture and religions.

Beyond excellence: Extending the generetic approach to international public relations The case of Bosnia

Michael L. Kent, Maureen Taylor
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com


The article explains international public relations by explaining rhetorical generic theory.
Interesting point from the article is that the model of understanding American and international public relations is actually limiting public relation theory development. There is a comparison between PR and other fields like physical and social sciences that rely on multiple theories to explain their phenomena of interest.
It is also said that the Excellence model has several limitations.
That article suggests that the academics have to examine more the cultural, social, and economic factors that influence public relations development.
Cultural and interpersonal communications cannot be reduced to a few principles, because they are much complex. New theories and researches are needed and one theory will never explain the practice of PR in every different country.

Social Meda in 16th Century

How Luther went viral
Five centuries before Facebook and the Arab spring, social media helped bring about the Reformation
from the print edition

I enjoyed that article a lot. It was very interesting to read how Luther used 'old version' of social media, sending his religious messages - pamphlets, ballads and woodcuts to the public.

Actually he used a diverse social media tools, written songs with particular melody – almost like YouTube nowadays, wooden pictures – could be compared to Pinterest for example.

It is impressive how important is the use of right language. At first he wrote his pamphlets in Latin language and didn’t have serious success, but after the translation to German the social network was activated and his messages were send all around Europe.

Transforming the city: The potential for urban ethnographies for PR. The case for Latin America / Caroline E.M Hodges, Janice Denegri-Knott

I read the article today. I found interesting ideas. I would like to find more information about cities and PR. Like that topic the urbanization, the culture and historical aspects are very strong and they have to be studied from PR practitioners.

Arabs, the West and public relations: A critical/cultural study of Arab / Ali Al-Kandari, T.Kenn Gaither

Very interesting article. Reading about the cultural aspect in PR in Arab world was good experience.

The article identifies the cultural value orientations that influence Arab world. It shows the commitment to religion, the strong family connection and resistance to change.


Public relations can play very useful role to rectify misinformation between Arab cultures and the West. The paper illustrates examples how PR can bridge differences between cultures.
The scholars’ opinion is that to define the term Arab is not easy. An Arab student declared in a conference that ‘ all who are Arab in their language, culture and loyalty ( or national feeling) are Arabs.’
After reading the article I realised that Arab culture is rich and complex.

The family as a unit and religion in the Arab world are very strong. The article is about Muslim Arabs, because not every Arab is Muslim. Arab Muslims are proud people, they are proud of their faith, tradition and language. The paper explains that every message sent to Arab Muslims has to be linked to their god – Allah, or the Koran to be easy for people to assimilate the new information, to accept it and to believe in it. My personal opinion is different.

 

Globalization and public relations: An overview looking into the future, Sriramesh

I read with pleasure Sriramesh's essay and I am going to make some notes on the most interesting points  for me . The cultural aspect of PR is one of my favourite topics, that is why I am planning to use Sriramesh's article in my future researches.

''Rapid globalization has created new opportunities and challenges as well to PR practice. The cultural aspect in PR could be defined with a view of the future.

In the past decade big number of PR scholars has contended that PR like practice had been in existence even in pre-biblical times. Other example is that in the Middle East PR can be traced back at least 4000 years. German scholars have traced the roots of ‘modern’ PR in Germany to the mid-nineteenth century.

            The early days of theorising PR was focused around two major streams of scholarship:

·         PR at the organizational level

·         Individual practitioner roles

The body of knowledge of PR had been largely ethnocentric until the middle 1990. After that scholarships started to study the practice in other countries.

Globalization is the reason of moving the PR body of knowledge toward greater cultural relativism.

The essay gives an overview of PR in the global sphere and provides a definition for PR.

Defining PR and linking it with globalization:

‘’PR is strategic communication that different types of organizations use for establishing and maintaining symbiotic relationships with relevant publics many of whom are increasingly becoming culturally divers’’   

There are three principal factors that put globalization on a different scale:

1.      The elimination of trade barriers among nations of the world

-          World trade organization – cultural diversity – consumers, employees, activists, members of media

2.      Media and Communications – need for global public relations

3.      The human race needs to come together and address common problems like – pollution, terrorism, etc

Moving PR scholarship to the ‘International arena’

Ø  The Excellence project - $ 400.000 research study

Ø  The growth of non-US graduate students studying PR in the US.

Thanks to the project was edited volum by Grunig and in it there was proposed culture as a variable that affects PR practice.

Internationalising the body of knowledge of PR:

Framework from the Excellence project:

1.       10 generic principles of PR – can be adopted by PR in different cultures

2.       Environment for PR

Ø  Culture

Ø  Media

Ø  Political system

Ø  Level of development

Ø  Activism


Future

The books used for teaching PR around the world came from US and UK. The need of global examples is very big.  The books from US and UK should contain more ‘global’ cases.

There are some scholarship in countries such as France, Germany, Brazil their studies has been limited by language. English language continue to be the ‘universal’ language of choice.