A Look at Media Relations Globally

As Barry Maude(Pg.3) rightly puts it, in an increasingly global world, national cultures continue to be extremely important, giving people a sense of identity and uniqueness and providing a legal framework within which multinational firms operate and international trade is carried out. Every nation has its own set of values which further determine the way in which the stakeholders will be reached, the way in which a PR manager will react to a given situation and the like. One has to keep in mind the change in value systems and popular culture when dealing with media relations on a global scale. The other important parameters to be kept in mind while sending out a news release globally, are the ways in which different cultures interact such as language, speech codes, group conflicts, nonverbal codes and ignore the external perception. A public relations manager should be aware that sending out a press release across the globe is not the same as sending it out in his country. Even when he has completely understood the facts, there is no guarantee that he would receive the desired reaction. He should not make any changes to the story or customize the story based on the country. Instead, he could try to improve the possibilities of making it more acceptable. Parkinson and Ekachai (Pg.86) believe that A PR professional represents clients whose interests cross national borders; he is confronted with two unique problems. These are the need for public diplomacy and corporate foreign policy. Public diplomacy refers to the involvement of people outside of government who generate sufficient influence to affect diplomatic activities. Traditionally foreign policy was thought of as a concern of nations but many organizations around the world have stressed on their public relations strategists to consider foreign policy as important.

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