Week 11 - PR in Asian Countries

Monday, March 15, 2010 2:16 PM

Public relations in Asian countries are different from that in Western countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Some Asian countries mentioned in the readings are China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, , the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and so on. Not only does public relations differ between Asian countries and Western countries, public relations in Asian countries itself, differ from one another.

This difference is caused by the difference in culture, language and the way the government works in the different countries. Due to these differences, the way public relations is being practised and managed needs to be different. There isn't a “one size fits all” kind of thing.

Take for instance in China, the country is a communist country. That in itself makes circumstances different for public relations. As for their language, Mandarin is their first language but despite these factors, public relations in China is opening up. And as in China, Hong Kong (SAR) is somewhat similar in terms of guanxi. Chinese people holds guanxi in high regard. It is basically building relationships.

The Philippines' public relations comes a long way with its influence mainly from the United States. However, public relations in the Philippines is not always free of corruption which is quite upsetting in my opinion. Another example would be Singapore. Singapore is a small country but public relations has been on the rise over the recent years. What is depressing to know is that Singapore has trouble with understanding the definition of public relations and the consequence of that is that public relations is being mixed and jumbled up with marketing, advertising and publicity. Besides that, Singapore's government is the one controlling the media.

Public relations is not easy to understand and to carry out. There are a lot of lines, boundaries, codes of ethics to follow. Dealing with different countries' public relations, public relations practitioners must be careful and sensitive to the cultural differences. When it comes to dealing with different organizations, they too have a different set of rules to follow; i.e. the way they work and all. Building relationships with others and maintaining them are important and necessary. Through given opportunities and experiences, the PR skills of public relations practitioners can be honed.

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Week 10 - New Media

Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:13 PM

We are living in an age of advanced technology. Many people have internet connections in their homes. Many people use Facebook, twitter and many people blog. New media is on the rise. Public relation practitioners are starting to use new media for campaigns but they have yet to understand and know how to fully utilize new media to their advantage. It is not a top-down approach, but rather a two-way communication; that they may receive feedbacks and ideas from the public.

Having said that, there always has to be a balance in things. Public relation practitioners cannot solely base on promoting their campaigns or events through new media. There are factors to consider. Factors such as, certain countries like China has banned certain websites and searches on the internet, and public relation practitioners have to know that even though we are living in an age of advanced technology, not everyone has internet access. There are people who actually live in poorer conditions and cannot afford internet access.

Besides that, public relations at its basics is mainly a person to person interaction and using new media is another opportunity for public relations practitioners to reach out to those who are more IT savvy. Taken form a quote:

“I think a lot, maybe I'm a bit old school, but I feel that public relations still needs a lot of human touch, still needs a lot of interpersonal feel, [an] interpersonal relationship with the person that you are dealing with and not just leave it to modern technology to take over.” (Fitch, 2009)

To conclude, I think public relation practitioners need to know how to make use of every (kind of) opportunity presented to them, to reach out to the public.

Reference
Fitch, K. 2009. ‘New media and public relations’, Ch. 12 in An Introduction to Public Relations: from theory to practice, Chia, J. & Synnott, G. (eds), Sth Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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Week 9 - Relationship Between Reputation and Management

Monday, March 8, 2010 2:10 PM

Corporate reputation management is rooted on the skill set of ethical corporate public relations professionals but it encompasses the cooperation and coordination across the entire organization. The most consequential driver of reputation is the quality of an organization's relationships with its stakeholders.

Reputation is not something that can be built overnight. It may take a long time for reputation to be built yet reputation of an organization can crumble within a night. The worst thing an organization can do, just because they want to make themselves look good, is to claim to be something that they are not. Take for instance an organization were to say that they are an environmentally friendly organization but they do not act as they say. This would cause the organization to lose their trust from the public and their reputation.

Organizations need to run in an open environment. They need to react to the public outlook and changing expectations. The way an organization is being managed contributes to how its reputation is like. With good management, crisis management may not be needed. The process of listening to the audience and stakeholder issues and concerns, and being thoughtful and understanding toward the rise of public viewpoints on issues with regards to the organization, are essential roles and tasks of public relations practitioners.

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Week 8 - Internal and External Environment

Monday, March 1, 2010 3:07 AM

Public relations management in organization is based mainly on systems theory which we have already touched on in week three. To reach organizational goals, public relations practitioners need to be conscious of the relationships between the public relations function and other corporate functions. Public relations practitioners need to build strong relationships with their employees with regard to communication channels and organizational culture.

Public relations work hand in hand with other departments such as marketing, human resource and the legal department. Public relations practitioners need to know how these departments work to bring out the best in their tasks.

Public relations practitioners also need to know what goes on in the environment as things that happen externally, out of the organization, affects the decisions they make. Therefore building relationships externally, i.e the public, is crucial. They have the ability to impact and affect organizations during times of stability and change. Change is inevitable thus keeping yourself updated about the happenings of the environment is good. Contemporary challenges are moulded by the constant changing expectations of the public. Due to these constant changes, the role of public relations will continue to change as well.

Understanding internal environment (within the organization) and external environment (outside of the organization) is important for public relations practitioners. Through this understanding, public relations practitioners can then perform their tasks at best and help the organization to flourish.

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