Main players in international public relations

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.

Scholars say International PR is…

Since 1990, the concept of international public relations (IPR) is attracting more and more attention of PR practitioners, scholars, PR associations (International Public Relations Association) ) and international companies and organisations. This growth is extraordinary but also haphazard. An increasing number of countries are adapting American or European public relations principles and they are also making it their own by adjusting these principles to their cultural values and believes. (Wakefield) However, other countries consider public relations practitioners only as communications technicians and usually they do not reach management roles as an expert and responsible of communication, where they are in charge of the PR problems and their solutions, as well as developing programmes for their client or organisation. 

IPR in the twenty-first century is the area of PR practice that has grown most rapidly. Despite its interest, IPR theory and investigation has been poor and most of the existing studies come from other disciplines such as marketing, human resources and management.

Now lets see some of the current definitions:

Dennis L. Wilcox (2001), Agee and Ault defined IPR as “the planned and organised effort of a company, institution or government to establish mutually beneficial relations with the publics of other nations”.

Tench, Ralph (Exploring PR) says “IPR is the planned communication activity of an (multinational) organisation, a supra- or international institution or government to create a positive and receptive environment through interactions in the target country which facilitates the organisation (or government) to achieve its policy or business objectives without harming the interest of the host publics”.

Booth (1986) implied that the only true international practicioners are those who ‘understand how business is done across national borders’ and perform in that context.

However, in all these definitions there is an important aspect, and an essential practice in public relations, that is missing. That is mutual understanding and relationship building between an organisation (global) and its public (local country)

The CIPR has a number of sectoral groups run by members of the Institute and one of this groups in International Public Relations, for members working in-house or in consultancy in an international context, or who wish to develop their careers in an international direction. It is an opportunity for both networking and training.

The New Era of Global PR

I have always been interested in international relations and communication. I have lived in three continents and studied Journalism in Madrid. Currently, I am a PR master student and my obvious topic for this blog is International Public Relations (IPR).

Our world is completely global. Cultures and societies are interrelated and they influence each other. Also, communications and technology have an essential roll in modern society and have shaped the ways in which we share information, where individuals have more power than before thanks to Internet.

In my blog I would like to discuss and understand the current situation of International PR and how practitioners in this discipline have to juggle between global solutions as well as more focused approaches for each country, company or organization. Also, an important topic is the analysis of barriers and factors that affect this discipline and the generic principles in IPR practice. We know that most PR theories have an USA and UK approach, and it is why I will give an overview of how PR practice has developed in different regions of the world. Finally, what will be the future of International Public Relations practice?