Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public ... - Blogs Unpad

• communication infrastructure;
• market economy;
• political stability;
• linguistic/cultural integration.
Unchanged role
Moss (2001) suggests that in many parts of
the world public relations remains wedded to
its publicity origins. But, Krishnamurthy and
Dejan (2001) suggest that, in political systems
that do not value public opinion, PR tends to
be propagandist (although Al-Enad (1990)
questions whether government institutions
in authoritative societies care about public
opinion).
However, Krishnamurthy and Dejan note
that varying stages of democratization offer
different opportunities and challenges to PR
professionals. They suggest that the western
definition of public relations assumes a democratic
political structure where competing
groups seek authority and legitimacy through
the power of public opinion.
International PR practitioners must understand
the extent of media outreach 3 in countries
where they operate. But that media may
not provide an effective means for wide dissemination
of organizational messages in
every country.
In developing countries the media reaches
a fairly homogenous small segment of the
total population; accordingly, in order to
reach the largest populace the iPR consultant
will have to think of other media that reach
out to untapped publics (Krishnamurthy and
Dejan, 2001).
IT impact
Among PR practitioners, increasingly complex
relationships must be nurtured satisfactorily;
and this has, by and large, to be done through
unproven means (Kruckeberg, 1996). The
computer has become central to PR activity
and the global potential of the internet suggests
more intercultural activity (Neff, 1998).
Interactive communication technologies
are providing groups and individuals with
unprecedented capacities to form meaningful
transnational networks (Comor, 2001). The
rapid expansion of communication technology
has increased the dissemination of
information (although the level of development
of a country’s infrastructure vastly influences
a practitioner’s ability to plan and
implement communication programmes).
This rapid increase in international communication
through emergent IT is putting PR practitioners
at the forefront of managing
relationships with peoples of varied nations
and cultures (Krishnamurthy and Dejan,
2001).
Culture
Taylor and Kent (1999) suggest that detailed
introspection may well persuade PR practitioners
that many of the assumptions guiding
western PR are simply not applicable to the
growing field of iPR. Taylor (2001) suggests
that it is important to remember that iPR is
always intercultural PR.
Intuitively, one would posit that different
cultures would require different PR theories
and practice (Kruckeberg, 1996). In arguing
that cultural distinctions among societies must
affect the way that PR is practised within those
societies Sriramesh and White (1992) lend
credence to this assumption.
Kruckeberg (1996) notes that when they
practise beyond their borders western PR
practitioners face an extreme range of cultures;
and that they will be challenged by
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors