GLOBAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

Definition of global public relations

Public relations professionals globally they are assisting their organizations not only in building and maintaining multiple relationships at home-where organizations have their headquarters-, but also constructing and keeping those bridges abroad in other host locations and transnational environments-especially with activist groups, global media, and international non-governmental organizations. (Muzi Falconi, 2006).

THE CONTEXTUAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL FRAMEWORK MULTINATIONAL BUSINESSES.

Factors on the practice of public relations has been documented, as well as a series of

Public relations professionals and their organizations need to understand the following aspects associated with the three major sets of contextual variables:

  The value of public opinion and pluralistic views, which are closely related to the level of sophistication of the practice; 
  political ideology present in the government and the classification of the political system, as well as its respective policies of economic development;
§  types and number of competing groups seeking legitimacy and power through public opinion and elections;
  the acceptance and lack of alternative views, which in emergent democracies may be only encouraged in theory;
  covert or overt forms of self- (including professional), social, government censorship;
  level of economic freedom and level of centralization of economic decision-making, and consequently the extent of entrepreneurship, which allows for a dynamic public relations industry;
  private sector power to influence economic decisions, as well as the relationship between private and public sectors; moreover, vast public sectors become primary publics for organizations (read Taylor & Kent’s 1999 study on government as the most important public in former Soviet republics);
  level and availability of technological development relevant to the practice;
  national rates of poverty and illiteracy, which determine the complexity of the communication mix;
  history, types, and extent of activism, knowing that activists force organizations to be socially responsible and fulfill societal expectations;
  power and independence of the judicial system, as well as the interaction between the judicial and executive branches of government;
  legislation that regulates public relations, any of the specialized sub-practices, and/or related communication activities and professions, including legal versus social and religious codes;
  corporate culture as a distinctive corporate personality of an organization, including leadership type, years since its foundation, industry type, and size;
  how people in a given country behave toward and perceive organizations;
 characteristics and dimensions of societal culture, including idiosyncrasies and traditions;
  media infrastructure and level of professional standards of journalists and editors, including media control (that is private or government ownership; direct or indirect government control; identification with country’s political philosophy and its political parties and the potential control over editorial policy);
  the level of media outreach; that is the ability of media to diffuse messages to different audiences according to their patterns of media consumption;
 And the level of access to the media for organizations, agencies, and activists, as well as the value of information subsidies, such as news releases, news conferences, face-to-face interviews.

BY MDODO REBECCA J

BAPRM-42614