In the international system, IPR has to deal with several multinationals, governments, global mass media organisations and nations, to name a few. Furthermore, one PR agency can work simultaneously for a country, a MNO or NGO. But who are these main players? It is important to understand that reputation; nation’s image, understanding and building relations, are main objectives for why companies, governments and organisations will hire and have an IPR service.
Multinational organisation (MNOs) with a variety of global business such as increased global sales or creating global brands and raising brand awareness. Multinational companies have societies of production, sales or distribution in other countries, although the head office is settle in an specific nation, they will make decisions with a global perspective to get the commercial and economic advantage of each country they operate.
Nation-states and governments: the images of nations are important to attract investment, to boost tourism or to achieve foreign policy goals. Reputation is one of the most valuable currencies in international politics and governments often compete for credibility. For the nation-state, PR means the planned and continuous distribution of interest-bound information by a country aimed, mostly, at improving the nation’s image abroad.
This news video shows a Chine’s PR campaign against the Tibetan manifestations in China and around the world, and the their intention to mitigates the consequences of this internal issue on the Olympics.
Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) are those whose members are national states. They can be (inter) regional, such as the European Union, Association of South East Asian Nations, League of Arab States, the European Space Agency or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) or global, such as the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organisation (WTO), UNESCO and World Health Organisation (WHO). These organisations make collective decisions to manage particular problems on the global agenda.
International non-governmental organisations (NGOs) NGOs represent every facet of political, social and economic activities and their worldwide number is around 30,000. They claim to be the ‘global conscience’ and often mount IPR campaigns against large for-profit organisations or government, ‘naming and shaming’ them. Some of the most well-known are Greenpeace, Red Cross and Amnesty International, the list in big.
Virtual communities are does that develop on the Internet, ignoring the limitations of space and time. Blog are part of the virtual communities, and has become an important tool of communication and people can share information, opinions and build relashionships. There is an interesting website of blogosphere and the importance of virtual communities in Into the Blogosphere by Anita Blanchard, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
In a virtual world of their own is an article in The Guardian about Mohamed El-Fatatry, an Egiptian working in Finland, that created a virtual world aimed to the Muslim community.
Muxlim Pal creator Mohamed El-Fatatry
Also, we cannot forget the media conglomerates (companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet). The world’s largest conglomerate is News Corporation, then Timer Warner and third in the rank, The Walt Disney Company. Other major corporation are Bertelsman, CBS Corporation, Grupo PRISA, and Vivendi.
Critics point the finger at the media conglomerates accusing them of controlling media, in particular the news, and not making public newsworthy information that go against or can harm their own interests. Also, detractors blame them for being the leading forces contributing in the standardisation of culture, especially Americanisation.
Jeff Chester is an executive director of the Centre for Digital Democracy, based in Washington DC. In this youtube video he critics large media conglomerates.
