Is PR equals propaganda?

Most people know that during war, the countries involved in it will influence the public opinion to support their cause. The methods they use are sophisticated campaigns and messages aiming to change the behaviours of a target audience, usually a large number of individuals.

There are many and many examples of propaganda, so many that we could go back to Ancient history and find examples of leaders making use of a basic and rudimentary propaganda. But it was in the last two centuries that human’s mastered propaganda. In yesterday’s class we saw how the U.S. and British government were making use of propaganda in the Iraq war. It is a documentary done by the BBC that explains how they manipulated messages and spin information to convince the population that the war was necessary and it was being successful.

The debate around propaganda and war is especially interesting and can become awfully passionate. However there is another topic equally attractive, PR and propaganda. Many critics refer to PR as a synonym of propaganda. In Le Monde Diplomatic, the American writer Noam Chomsky talks about democratic governments manipulating the media and communication and how they also make use of propaganda. He also states that PR “is a major advance on totalitarian rule, as it is much more agreeable to be subjected to advertising than to torture.”

PR can be used as propaganda but it is not the ethical practice of this profession. PR practitioners want to take their massage across but also they want to understand the public and build relations that can benefit both sides. In this industry, like in any other, there will be “bad” PR practitioners that will manipulate the facts or restrict essential information to the media so a pre-design massage will come across to the public.

In this YouTube video the author and co-founder of PR Watch John Stauber also criticizes PR firms as a multibillion-dollar industry that manipulates the media and masses. Also, how they are trying to expose this PR firms that are manipulating public opinion.

I do not know if people can avoid manipulation and propaganda but an important habit that will help individuals to have a bigger perspective of what is happening is to read different media outlets. Now a day, the Internet is an enormous source of information and points of view that we can get information of the current issues in the world and our country. We cannot be naïve that there are authorities, opinion leaders and organization that will attempt to manipulate public opinion. However, I do believe that there are PR practitioners that work hard to give accurate information, build solid relations between shareholders and carry out an ethical PR practice.

Future of International Public Relations

Clearly, culture matters in international public relations. Its practice varies greatly around the globe through competing definitions of public relations and semantic nuances that suggest links to propaganda and persuasion. On a larger level, it’s the cultural subtleties that alter not only definitions of public relations but also what it means to do public relations internationally.

Culture represents the layers public relations must contend with to get to shared situations at the core of international public relations, whether building nations, attracting tourism, spurring economic growth, or controlling discord from opposition groups or nations. The layers of culture extend across international lines, from developed to developing countries, from democratic nations to authoritarian regimes.

Although it’s important to define public relations practice, such an endeavour can also limit theoretical scope. Definitions privilege worldviews, establish power relations, and attach names to communicative processes that are constantly in change, shaped by global forces that include economic and cultural waves.

International public relations is an area of the public relations practice that will continue growing with the development of PR in different parts of the world, specially with emerging countries in Asia and South America. They will add value to this profession and possibly develop new theoretical frameworks. The future of public relations, most importantly of international PR, is a global world without limits.

Ketchum Senior Counsel John Paluszek shares his perspectives on the future of public relations in an address to the Florida Public Relations Association at its annual conference in August 2008.

Education for IPR practitioners

The activities developed by IPR should be done by professional PR practitioners. This type of PR practitioner has to understand what is international public relations and also have a strong knowledge of International Relations. Expert in this field of International PR or Global PR are cultural interpreters of each host country, they have to be able to translate the cultural differences between the client and their audiences, being the last one of enormous dimension and diversity.

There is a complete article IPRA (International Public Relations Association) analysing A Model for Public Relations Education for Professional Practice.

IPR South America

PR is emerging as a socially mandated profession in South America just as it is in other parts of the world. Advancements in democracy and communication technology, along with growing economic and environmental interdependence, are the primary globally shared reasons for the profession’s growth and development.

In South America the social role of PR is truly reflected in the special characteristics of the PR practitioners. The social and economic imbalance in the countries in Latin America is a major factor in the development of the PR profession and practice, where PR practitioners are active agents of social and political transformation.

A continuation a will name some of the current characteristics of PR is South America:
· Licensing of public relations.
· The creation of public relations universities programmes and courses to develop student’s skills.
· Growth and development of professional organisations and the arrival of international PR consultants.
· The advancements in democracy, particularly in the transparency of government.
· There is a holistic concept of public relations.
· There is a need to balance relationship of public relations and journalism. In the region they can see difference between the two profession and each other roles.
· Development of stockholder owned corporations

The PR industry in some Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Chile or Argentina, is at the same level as some of the European countries. However, there are other countries that the PR industry is synonym of propaganda.

IPR China

According to a 2004 survey, China has more than 1,500 public relations firms, and public relations is one of the top five professions in the country. The growth of the profession in China has caused a shortage of qualified public relations professionals.

Many scholars have pointed out the historical association between public relations and propaganda. That link is still fresh in Asian countries including China and the Philippines. In these countries, public relations practice is not a wholly separate concept from that of propaganda. Reforming communication from the negative of propaganda to the accepted area of traditional public relations is a slow process.

Please read this interesting report that wrote Weber & Shandwick about The Challenges of Public Relations in China.

This shift arguably created the need for public relations and redefined it. No longer was the emphasis on government communication and one-way messages pounded into powerless publics through propaganda. Now it could be used in new ways by private organisations. The contested definition of public relations changed as the political paradigm shifted in China, making it more varied, open, and flexible than ever before, but still far away from the idea of PR we have in the UK.

CNN report of the Olympic PR in China

China is still one of the most prosperous for the development, not only of public relations, but every economic or business market. Nevertheless, the article of Weber & Shandwick says that “consultants who are growing up with the industry are becoming experts in balancing creative campaigns with a deep understanding of the unique media environment. In recent years the Chinese media has had more flexibility and editorial control, but the regulation of media outlets by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) can still be a challenge. It is important to keep in mind that the government has tight control over all media outlets, and media are required to cover important government events.”

Structures of International PR

Each organisation can choose if they want their international PR department to follow a centralised (control) communicational policy or decentralised. The first one would be a model where the parent company’s PR team is responsible for planning campaigns and for the development of communicational policies, procedures and strategies, and the PR departments of the local offices have to follow. The decentralisation, the local PR departments have partial or full autonomy of policy making and planning.

 There is another debate in IPR and in many communication disciplines, these are: Standardisation against Adaptation. Standardisation is a uniform approach in the different countries, for example McDonald’s. If you go to a McDonalds in Paris, Japan or Chile you would see the same corporate colours, logo and possible menu, specially the Big Mac. On the other hand, adaptation is a culture-specific approach.

This McDonald’s advert show the diversity of consumers they have and proves you can find the same burger in different countries.

The structure of IPR will depend on the company or organisation, usually smaller multinationals tent to centralise their decision-making.

General Principles in IPR

Many scholars have been interested in whether PR principles are universal and also which factors have to change of an international PR campaign into each country. Most of the theoretical background of PR evolved in the US and in the UK, so the question is if these theories are applicable in other nations and if other theories have been created in other regions of the world.

Dr George Yip, President & Director of Research and Innovation, talk about Global Account Management (GAM) framework that multinational telecom, media and Internet players can leverage to grow revenues and customer satisfaction within key accounts.

Culbertson in his book (International Public Relations, A Comparative Analysis) says there are nine generic principles of PR practice:

1.     Involvement of PR in strategic management

2.     Empowerment of PR in the dominant coalition or a direct relationship to senior management.

3.     Integrated PR function.

4.     PR as a management function separated from other functions.

5.     Role of the PR practitioner

6.     Two-way symmetrical model of PR.

7.     A symmetrical system of internal communication.

8.     Knowledge potential for managerial role and symmetrical PR.

9.     Diversity embodied in all roles.

This shows that public relations have generic components that will work normally in most cultures and political systems. However, the specifics applications, such as strategies, techniques, and PR practice, will differ in each location, organisation or country.

For example, a study conducted in Greece, India and Taiwan identified two models. First the ‘personal influence’ model, where PR practitioners have to develop relationships with key opinion leaders. Then, the ‘cultural interpreter’ model, the PR practitioner interpret local cultures and practices to a multinational company or organisation.

Nevertheless, it is essential that PR practitioner know that the application of the general principles cannot be applied if there is no extent research and strategy research so they are adjusted to each different culture and political system in each country.