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.