PRO285Public Relations in SocietyPR in ChinaTopic 12.docx

PRO285
Public Relations in Society
PR in China
Topic 12
Lecture objectives
• To introduce brand ‘China’ from a
Western perspective
• To explore PRO285 themes, including
nation-building, society, and culture, in
relation to China
• To consider the role public relations
plays in China today
• To introduce contemporary
understandings of public relations in
China
What is ‘China’ [from an
outsider’s perspective]?
• ‘China museum shut over fakes’, Telegraph, 22
May 2014

• ‘China fighters in “dangerous” brush with
Japanese planes’, Channel News Asia, 25 May
2014
• ‘In smog-choked China, a scramble for
breathable air’, USA Today, 25 May 2014
• Australia budgeting on China’s economy, The
Daily Reckoning, 14 May 2014
• ‘Bomb attack in China labelled as 'violent
terrorist incident‘, ABC News, 22 May 2014
• ‘China: Censors work overtime for Tiananmen
anniversary’, Index on Censorship, 23 May 2014
China
• an enduring country with support, and a lack of
effective opposition, from citizens
• based on a peasant society whereby citizens were
long unable to determine their own fate and
contribute meaningfully to social political
processes
• built on the establishment of a meritocratic
bureaucracy centred around the throne and
emperors
• the benefits of westernisation and modernisation
came with the leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 in an
attempt to mitigate exploitation and poverty

(Chen & Culbertson, 2009)
PR in China
1980s.
PR grew rapidly but declined in the
early 1990s.
(business)
and political stability have contributed
to divisions in Chinese PR.
Beijing Olympics
• Various Western public relations firms
(including Bell Pottinger and Weber
Shandwick Worldwide) were involved in
lobbying on China’s behalf
• Their strategy was to argue that hosting
the Olympics would allow China to
better address human rights concerns.
• Hill & Knowlton provided advice on

media training and press conferences,
and encouraged China to take a visible
position on human rights abuse
#Burma
Hofstede’s dimensions & China
• Power distance: Chinese society believes that
inequalities amongst people are acceptable.
• Individualism/collectivism: highly collectivist
culture where people act in the interests of the
group and not necessarily of themselves.
• Masculinity/femininity: masculine society, success
oriented and driven.
• Uncertainty avoidance: comfortable with
ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Long-term orientation: highly long term oriented
society, persistence and perseverance are normal.
Guanxi, guangxi
• Guangxi refers to one’s connections and
friendships in order to get things done (Chen &
Culbertson, 2009).
• Connection, social networking, interpersonal
relationship, power, social status, resource
transfer, under the table, invisible (Hackley and

Dong, 2001)
• China is highly collectivist and therefore its people
are interdependent...however...the increasing
search for wealth may be contributing to an
individualist way of thinking and acting (Hofstede
& Bond, 1988).
Chinese perspectives I
• ‘PR is about information control and management,
which is an important source of the government
political power. PR in China should develop within
the framework of Chinese laws and regulation. It
ought to be ideologically correct and fit in with the
party-state line.’ (Senior CIPRA member, cited in
Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013).
• ‘China is a guanxi-rooted society. It entails
acquaintance with one another by means of
banquets, giving gifts, or networking.’ (PR
consultant, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013)
Chinese perspectives II
• ‘Since we contest with journalists in terms of
defining news values, following the state guideline
can always be a platform or an opportunity for
negotiating cooperation between different PR
stakeholders. Either commercially oriented media
or market-oriented PR should follow the Party
ideology and the state themes.’ [In-house

manager, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013]
• Chinese organizations tend to pursue result-driven
and effect-guaranteed PR, which has led Chinese
PR to positioning itself with a function of tactical
implementation rather than strategic
consulting.[PR consultant, cited in Hou, Zhu &
Bromley, 2013]
References
• Chen, N. & Culbertson, H. (2009). Public
relations in mainland China: An adolescent with
growing pains. In K. Sriramesh & D. Verčič,
(Eds.),The global public relations handbook:
Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed., pp.
175-197). Abingdon, England & New York, NY:
Routledge.
• Hackley, C. A. & Dong, Q. (2001). American
public relations and China's guanxi. Public
Relations Quarterly, 46, 16-19.
• Hofstede, G. Bond, M. (1988). The Confucius
connection: From cultural roots to economic
growth. Organizational Dynamics,16(4), 5-21.
• Hou, Z. Zhu, Y. & Bromley, M. (2013).
Understanding public relations in China: Multiple
logics and identities. Journal of Business and
Technical Communication, 27(3), 308-328.

PRO285
Storytelling
Topic 10
Please sit next to someone in this lecture.
Tell each other what you did over the weekend.
The public relations profession is all about
narrating and storying since public relations is a
storytelling occupation (Elmer, 2011).
PR is storytelling
The stories that public relations professionals tell
about themselves, their colleagues, their clients,
their organisations is a valuable source of
meaning about the public relations profession
(Hodges, 2011; Elmer, 2011).
PR storytelling as research
A narrative/story is a piece of language that

consists of states of affairs plotted together into
a meaningful whole through chronology/time
and causality involving characters (Czarniawska-
Joerges, 1998; Lawler, 2002).
What is a narrative or a
story?
Did you tell a story/narrative?
Or did you re-state factual
events?
Sit next to someone in this lecture.
Tell each other what you did over the weekend.
The truth of a narrative/story lies in its meaning not its
accuracy (Gabriel, 2000), and therefore narrative can
capture the practice of PR in ways that no compilation of
facts through surveys ever could (see Czarniawska,
1999).
story vs. facts
Narratives are seen to circulate culturally, to
provide a repertoire (though not an infinite one)

from which people can produce their own stories
or narratives (Lawler, 2002).
narrative and culture
Practitioners use poetic mechanisms to attribute
meaning to characters, incidents and events
when they narrate their experiences.
Researching the practitioner’s
world using narrative
techniques.
(Gabriel, 2000)
Motive
Gabriel (2000) suggests that
how people attribute
motive to organisations and
their actor-agents (including
themselves) can tell us
much about the outcomes
they hoped to achieve.
A community investment
partnership we (BP) have is
with a museum up north.
This is where we have all

our operations and that is
where we do all our
drilling work. It’s a really
important area for our
drilling operations so a lot
of our community
investment is actually
situated up there…
Mary
Unity
Unity is a concept used
to refer to the casting
of people as a
collective, as an entire
class of people with
undifferentiated
motives (Gabriel,
2000)
A community investment
partnership BP has is with
a museum up north. This is
where we have all our
operations and that is
where we do all our
drilling work. It’s a really
important area for our
drilling operations so a lot
of our community
investment is actually
situated up there…

Mary
Responsibility
Gabriel (2000) suggests that
people and organisations
(characters) are blamed and
credited for certain
activities. This can help us
determine whether
characters are villains,
victims or heroes.
so, BP were one of the founding
partners of the non-profit, I
thinkwe were the first
supporter of the museum and
that helped them go get
funding from otherpartners
and from government and so
we have been partners with
them for 8 years now and we
are just looking at renewing it
at the moment…
Mary
Character Qualities
Gabriel (2000) tells us
that characters are

attributed with
positive and negative
qualities. This can also
help us determine
whether characters are
villains, victims or
heroes.
...theyouth organisation is really
credible; they have got so much
experience with young people.
They have worked in one stop
shops that have failed and they
understand why it failed. They get
all that stuff. They are just really
credible, really great, wonderful
people with amazing skills and
experience and passion and
heart...
Claire
Causal Connection
Where two or more
incidents or events
in a narrative are
linked by cause and
effect (Gabriel,
2000).
The non-profitused to have a
fundraising day and we had
[our corporation’s] employees

go and help them fund-raise
money, so therewas some
involvement there, but then
they got rid of that fund-
raising day so it kind of went
back to just handing the
money over and not much of a
relationship... (Mary, 11:54)
Mary
Tell each other what you did this morning from the
time you woke up until now.
Time
Objective-time is that modernist conception
whereby, in the material sense, time has the ability
to structure action; it is this concept that has driven
the need for efficiency and production and that has
made possible the need for control and function in
the modern organisation (Cunliffe et al., 2004).
Objective time
In the realm of psychological experience, quantifying
units of time is a clumsy operation. It is the imprecise
psychological clock, as opposed to the time on one’s
watch, that creates the perception of duration that

people experience (Levine 1997). From a subjective
perspective, time is the experience of duration because
its measurement is influenced by human experience
(Cunliffe et al. 2004).
Subjective time
“The individual experience of duration passes more
quickly (slowly) when experiences are pleasant
(unpleasant), are not urgent (urgent), are very busy
(not busy)”
(Levine 1997: 37–48).
Subjective time
When you told each other what you did this morning
from the time you woke up until now, did you tell
your experiences in an objective or subjective way?
Time
Progression over time
Causality
Characters

Deeper and more meaningful than facts
We can develop deep insights into PR professionals’
lives
Narratives/stories
Multiple story interpretation theory of competing
organizational discourses
The potential for multiple interpretations
Plurivocality
Disney has created cartoon characters known the
world over; Disney theme parks have higher
attendance than their competitors, and Walt Disney
remains a hero of the American dream.
Boje, D. (1995). Stories of the
Storytelling Organization: A
Postmodern Analysis of Disney
Lyotard (1984) assigned to postmodernism the
task of breaking up the grand narratives,

disintegrating the one story into a mass of
individual or localized accounts
Postmodernism and
storytelling
A review of Disney storytelling reveals that many
accounts do not fit the official story
So what is Walt Disney?
(Boje, 1995).
• Applying the Tamara metaphor, parallel
storytelling organization processes are at work in
and around the Walt Disney enterprise. The
official story is being challenged by stories of:
animators (Kinney, 1988),
script writers (Shows, 1979),
historians (Crafton, 1982; Marin, 1983),
journalists (Taylor, 1987),
postmodern researchers (Fjellman, 1992; Smith
& Eisenberg,
1987; Van Maanen, 1992), and
unauthorized biographers (Eliot, 1993).
There is more than one story of
Disney
(Boje, 1995).

There are contrary stories about Walt Disney and
the so-called Magic Kingdom that do not fit the
universal tale of happiness.
Contrary/competing stories
about Disney
(Boje, 1995).
Early official versions of how four animators left
Disney characterize them as disgruntled
employees lacking faith in Walt's vision
Competing stories about
Disney
(Boje, 1995).
Walt organized less-skilled artists, mostly
women, to do the inking work, at lower wages.
Disney
(Boje, 1995).
Stories from several long-term employees dispute

the authorship of Mickey Mouse and even the
animation and cartooning skills officially attributed to
Walt Disney. By most nonofficial accounts, Iwerks,
not Walt, had the drawing talent, but Walt was the
story creator and business manager.
Disney
(Boje, 1995).
The official Disney stories privilege Walt as sole
founder. They do not credit Roy Disney and Ub
Iwerks as founding partners in the emerging
Magic Kingdom, even though both men devoted
most of their lives to building it.
Competing
stories about
Disney
(Boje, 1995).
PRO285
Social media

Topic 9
Lecture objectives
• To introduce social media and its impact on
public relations
• To suggest that communication takes place in a
dynamic environment that poses new challenges
for professional communicators
• To identify some of these challenges for
communicating in an online environment
• To consider the implications for the ways we
conceptualise public relations and its role in
society
Introduction
• “‘Social media’ is the term commonly given to
Internet and mobile-based channels and tools
that allow users to interact with each other and
share opinions and content. As the name
implies, social media involves the building of
communities or networks, encouraging
participation and engagement.” (CIPR 2011 p. 4)
Challenges of the online
environment

• Challenges of the online environment
Conversations in the public domain
Publics become active rather than passive
Direct rather than mediated information flows
• Strategic media management
Publicity model vs relationship model
Digital media and channels
Website metrics and digital media KPIs
Understanding social media and
public relations – industry
attitudes
• Public relations practitioners were slow to
embrace new media and social media
• Barriers include staff, time, budget, along with a
lack of training and a fear of technology
• Practitioners trial social media for personal use
before adopting it in professional practice
• Practitioners increasingly use some form of
social media as part of public relations activity
Understanding social media and
public relations – theoretical
approaches

• Is social media really an opportunity for public
relations to ‘reinvent’ itself with a renewed focus
on dialogue and engagement? Or has nothing
really changed?
• With social media, public relations is a
distributed function performed by many people
in an organisation (Kelleher, 2009).
• There is a tension between organisational or
corporate voices and personal voices via social
media.
Publics and social media
• 78% of Australians use the internet, a figure
comparable with Singapore, Japan and the UK
(Fitch, 2012).
• However, internet access varies depending on
age, income, education and geographical
location.
• Social media allows geographically dispersed
publics to organise around a common issues.
Challenges for organisations
• The 24/7 commitment to social media erodes
professional and personal boundaries.

• Traditional approval processes are inappropriate
for social media, particularly in dynamic
situations.
• Organisations should develop clear policies and
procedures around social media use
(Macnamara, 2011).
• Much communication takes place online and
therefore creates new challenges for
practitioners.
Legal and ethical issues
• Social media challenges traditional notions of
copyright and ownership, exposing legislative
grey areas (Breit, 2007).
• Integrity (including transparency and openness),
competence and confidentiality should apply to
all public relations activity (CIPR, 2011).
• Practitioners must comply with the Australian
eMarketing Code of Practice.
Social media strategy
• Drawing on research, practitioners should
choose the best platform to use and develop a
communication strategy to drive people to that
platform.

• For example, the website team for
www.australianasbestosnetworks.org.au tweets
updates, links online videos and uses an avatar
to post stories on on Facebook.
• Not all campaigns need to include social media.
Social media platforms
• Blogs can develop an influential following with niche
audiences. They are also useful in terms of research.
• Social and business networks, such as Google Plus,
Facebook and LinkedIn, develop large networks and
can be useful in terms of relationship building,
promotional campaign and recruitment.
• File sharing sites, such as Tumblr, Flickr and YouTube,
encourage the development and dissemination of
audiovisual content.
• Twitter is emerging a an important news source and
practitioners are beginning to ‘twit-pitch’ to
journalists.
The future of public relations
• In 1998, Kent & Taylor viewed new media as
promoting more ethical public relations.
• Do you think social media has changed public
relations?

• How can practitioners use social media as an
opportunity to engage in dialogue?
• Do the opportunities for publics to connect with
each other ensure greater transparency in
organisational communication?
Further reading
• Bridgen, L. (2013). The boys are back in town: Rethinking the
feminisation of public relations through the prism of social
media.
Prism, 9(1). Accessed from
http://www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/9_1/Bridgen.pdf
• Kent, M. L. (2013). Using social media dialogically: Public
relations role in reviving democracy. Public Relations Review,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.07.024
• Linke, A. & Zerfass, A. (2013). Social media governance:
Regulatory frameworks for successful online communications.
Journal of Communication Management, 17(3), 270-86.
• Waddington, S. (2013). It cuts both ways. In S. Earl & S.
Waddington, Brand Vandals, pp 5-27. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing. Accessed from
issuu.com/bloomsburypublishing/docs/brand_vandals_online_sa
mpler
Indigenous

Perspectives
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To consider Indigenous perspectives in relation
to communication and culture
• To understand the history of Aboriginal people
in Australia
• To recognise why communication managers
require an understanding of linguistic and
cultural diversity in Indigenous communities
• To introduce principles of engagement and
empowerment in stakeholder engagement
Background
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are
disproportionately affected by poverty and
disadvantage.
• Long history of marginalisation and
disempowerment, e.g. right to vote, right to
marry, stolen generations, welfare
• Indigenous people have a life expectancy that is

on average ten years less than that of non-
Indigenous people (Closing the Gap Report,
2015).
• Western Australia has the highest rate of
Indigenous imprisonment (ABS, 2013).
Aboriginal culture and history in
Australia
• Aboriginal ‘community’ does not capture the diversity of
perspectives and experiences in the Aboriginal population in
Western Australia.
• Indigenous language map:
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
• To develop a stronger awareness of contemporary issues in
Australia, follow @IndigenousX #IndigenousX
• Kylie Farmer, ‘Keep our languages alive’, TedX,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAxhh6DguUo
• Bringing Them Home: The ‘Stolen Children’ Report (1997)
• Watch Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology (2008) or Prime
Minister Paul Keating’s Redfern Address (1992) on YouTube
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAxhh6DguUo
Why do PR practitioners need to
know about Indigenous

perspectives?
• 9b. That all undergraduates and trainees in relevant
professions
receive, as part of their core curriculum, education about the
history and effects of forcible removal (Bringing Them Home:
Appendix 9 Recommendations, 1997)
• Employers of public relations graduates in Singapore and
Perth
identified a gap in the knowledge of public relations graduates
regarding communication and engagement with Indigenous
communities (Fitch & Desai, 2012).
• Working with Indigenous communities: ‘it can be quite
dangerous if
you just go in there and impose our views on local
people…because
you always take your own international perspective and then
you
think that it’s right because it’s universal, or common sense …
but
not as far as these people are concerned.’ (Singaporean
practitioner)
Principles for engagement
• Kaupapa Māori: striving for partnership,
consultation to be fully informed as to publics’
needs and wishes, protection of the rights of all
publics, and redress for any wrongs done to
publics (Tilley & Love, 2010; Love & Tilley, 2014)
• Engaging with Aboriginal Western Australians

(2005) attempts to address lack of Indigenous
involvement in government policies that affect
them.
• All parties should be involved in co-negotiating the
terms of, objectives for, and measures of
proposed engagement.
Further reading
• Murdoch University’s Reconciliation
Action Plan 2015-2018
• http://our.murdoch.edu.au/Committees
/_document/Murdoch-University-RAP-
2015-2018-Endorsed.pdf
PRO285
International and intercultural public relations
Topic 11
Intercultural Public Relations
• Intercultural communication research concentrates
on exploring culture’s impact on communication at
the individual or interpersonal level (Zaharna, 2000).

• Culture-specific studies look at each culture
separately and culture-general studies identify
commonalities across cultures.
• Effectiveness in intercultural communication means
the degree to which interactants are able to avoid
misunderstanding (Gudykunst, 1991, 1993).
• Research has traditionally been functionalist and
managerialist but now more focussed on dialogic and
relational (cultural diversity and relationships) (Kent
& Taylor, 2011).
Culture and its influences on PR
• Personal influence model of PR:
organisational success is achieved behind the scenes and
people with connections to people of influence are more
successful (Sriramesh, 1992).
• Dialogic communication model of PR:
organisations and publics are equal. Dialogic organisations do
not enact managerial strategies but rather serve the needs of
stakeholders and public stakeseekers by developing long-
lasting stable relationships (Pearson 1989; Kent & Taylor,
1998, 2002, 2011).
• The genre approach to international and intercultural
PR
emphasises a genuine approach to understanding other
cultures. Correctly interpreting others is key to reducing
relationship uncertainty and ambiguity (Kent & Taylor, 2011).

International Public Relations can
be about:
• The planned and organised effort of an organisation
to establish mutually beneficial relations with the
publics of other nations (Wilcox, Ault and Agee,
1989).
• Government, organisations and individuals
influencing the public attitudes and opinions of
citizens of another country in an attempt to affect
another government’s foreign policy decisions
(Delaney 1968).
• Until the turn of the century, the literature on
International Public Relations tended to focus on how
Western organisations could operate in other
countries (Culbertson & Chen, 1996).
Globalisation
• Globalisation tells us that what happens in one
country can have an immediate effect on people and
organisations in another (Kent & Taylor, 2011).
• A trend of large organisations establishing branches
worldwide and smaller firms networking around the
globe (Zaharna, 2000).
• Perhaps globalisation is associated with a particular
philosophical outlook tied into the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the triumph of capitalism as the
superior mode of production and now on a mission to

bring its benefits to the rest of the world? (Milward,
2003, p. 2).
Hofstede’s work on culture
• Looked at value differences as a culture-
comparative piece of work.
• Explored culture through detailed questionnaires
(116,000) of hundreds of people at IBM from 40
different countries at two points in time
(1968/1972).
• Used theoretical reasoning and statistical
analysis (1973–1978) to interpret data.
• Presents evidence of differences in culture from
carefully matched samples from a large number
of nations (40, 70, 48, 50, 101, 109, 118).
Geert Hofstede: 5 dimensions
on culture
• ‘Culture’ is the collective programming of the mind
(thinking, feeling, and acting, with consequences for
beliefs, attitudes, and skills) that distinguishes the
members of one group or category of people from
another.
• Mental programs are developed in the family in early
childhood and reinforced in schools and organisations
... these mental programs contain a component of

national culture.
• People in different countries have different values
and those values can be ordered.
• See http://www.geerthofstede.nl/ and http://geert-
hofstede.com/
PDI – Power Distance
Definition Australia
Power distance is defined as the
extent to which the members
of a society ‘accept’ that
power in institutions and
organizations is distributed
unequally.
Australia scores low and does not
accept the unequal distribution of
power.
Within Australian organizations,
hierarchy is established for
convenience, superiors are always
accessible and managers rely on
individual employees and teams
for their expertise.
Both managers and employees
expect to be consulted and
information is shared frequently.
At the same time,communication
is informal, direct and

participative.
IDV - Individualism
Individualism stands for a preference
for a loosely knit social
framework in which individuals
are supposed to take care of
themselves and their immediate
families only
Opposed to collectivism, which
stands for a preference for a
tightly knit social framework in
which individuals can expect their
relatives, clan, or otherin-group
to look after them, in exchange
for unquestioning loyalty.
Australia is a highly individualistic
culture. This translates into a
loosely-knit society in which
the expectation is that people
look after themselves and
their immediate families.
In the business world, employees
are expected to be self-reliant
and display initiative.
MAS- Masculinity

Masculinity stands for a society in
which social gender roles are
clearly distinct: men are
supposed to be assertive, tough,
and focused on material success;
women are supposed to be more
modest, tender, and concerned
with the quality of life.
Femininity stands for a society in
which social gender roles overlap:
both men and women are
supposed to be modest, tender,
and concerned with the quality of
life.
Australia is considered a “masculine”
society.
Behaviourin school, work, and play are
based on the shared values that
people should “strive to be the best
they can be” and that “the winner
takesall”.
Australians are proud of their
successes and achievements in life,
and it offers a basisfor hiring and
promotiondecisions in the
workplace.
Conflicts are resolved at the individual
level and the goal is to win.

UAI – Uncertainty Avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance has to do
with the degree to which the
members of a society feel
uncomfortable with
uncertainty and ambiguity,
leading them to support
beliefs that promise certainty
and to maintain institutions
that protect conformity.
Australia is a fairly pragmatic culture in
terms of uncertainty avoidance and
scores mid-range. This means that both
generalists and experts are needed.
There is focus on planning, and they can be
altered at shortnotice and
improvisations made.
Emotions are not shown much in Australia,
people are fairly relaxed and not
adverse to taking risks.
Consequently, thereis a larger degree of
acceptance for new ideas, innovative
products and a willingness to try
somethingnew or different, whether it
pertains to technology, business
practices, or foodstuffs.

LTO – Long-Term Orientation
Michael Harris Bond, as published in
the 2nd edition of "Cultures and
Organizations, Software of the
Mind"(2005).
The long term orientation dimension
is closely related to the teachings
of Confucius and can be
interpreted as dealing with
society’s search for virtue, the
extent to which a society shows a
pragmatic future-oriented
perspective rather than a
conventional historical short-term
pointof view.
Australia is a short-term oriented
culture.
As a result, it is a culture focused on
traditions and fulfilling social
obligations.
Given this perspective, Australian
businesses measure their
performance on a short-term
basis, with profit and loss
statements being issued on a
quarterly basis. This also drives
individuals to strive for quick
results within the work place.
There is also a need to have the

“absolute truth” in all matters.
Criticisms of Hofstede
• He generalises to nation states from a few
questionnaire responses.
• IBM employees cannot represent nations. This is
a leap of faith because IBM had many atypical
characteristics (e.g. selective recruitment of the
‘middle-class’).
• His conception is too static. He ignored extensive
literatures which argue for recognition of
multiple, dissenting, emergent, organic, counter,
plural, resisting, incomplete, contradictory, fluid,
cultures in an organisation and in a single nation
(Sweeney, 2002).
Some crucial points
• Cultures are fluid, heterogeneous, evolving,
pluralistic and resisting
• Learning about other cultures helps put our own
culture into perspective
• As public relations professionals, to be able to
build relationships with culturally diverse
individuals and publics, you need to understand
why people act and communicate the way they
do.

• Are you up to the challenge of building
meaningful relationships in complex cultural
environments?
PRO285
Introduction
Lecture objectives
• To discuss the scope and focus of PRO285
• To introduce the key concepts of globalisation
and culture, which underpin PRO285
• To introduce new ways of thinking about public
relations
• To establish public relations as a ‘cultural
activity’ which demands new ways of thinking
about the field.
• To outline the assessment requirements for
PRO285
Social theorists versus the
functionalists

Public relations
• Radical shifts in public relations scholarship in 21st century
mean we are moving away from the dominant paradigm and
exploring a range of diverse voices and approaches—there
are new understandings of public relations, with a focus on
the social impact of public relations.
• Is public relations 1. a profession; 2 a communicative
practice; 3. an occupation; or 4. an industry?
• PR is a cultural practice: practitioners create meaning
through the construction and transmission of knowledge.
• Critical scholars consider ‘the social structures, political
processes, economic interests and ideologies through which
knowledge is articulated and practised’ (Pal & Dutta, 2008,
p. 160).
Globalisation
• ‘The intensification of worldwide social relations which link
distant localities in such a way that local happenings are
shaped by events occuring many miles away and vice versa.’
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity (p. 21).
Cambridge,
England: Polity Press
• ‘the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide
interconnectedness’ Baylis, J., Smith, S. & Owens, P. (2011).
The

Globalization of World Politics (p. 16). Oxford, England:
Oxford University
Press
• ‘the world as a single interactive system, rather than an
interplay of discrete nation-states. Its focus is on
transnational processes, interactions, and flows, rather than
international relations’ Appelbaum, R. & Robinson, W. (2005).
Critical
Globalization Studies (p. xi). New York, NY: Routledge
Why is globalisation significant
for public relations?
• Recognition that relationship building, culture,
communication and industry are interdependent,
fluid and dynamic
• Research into international public relations tends
to treat nation-states as separate categories (e.g.
see Geert Hofstede’s work)
• “West-to-rest” – whose values underpin and frame
the field?
Culture and public relations
• Culture is dynamic, fragmented, fluid, contested…
• Practitioners communicate with people from different
cultures in both multicultural societies and in transnational
settings.

• Public relations is a cultural activity Banks, S. (2000)
Multicultural
public relations. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press
• The PR industry struggles to negotiate culture in a
globalising and multicultural world Sriramesh, K. (2007), The
relationship between culture and public relations, in Toth, E.
(Ed.), The
future of excellence in public relations and communication
management,
(pp.507-526). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
• Industry research conducted in Singapore and Perth
identified ‘gaps’ in graduate and practitioner knowledge Fitch,
K. (2012). Industry perceptions of intercultural competence in
Singapore
and Perth, Public Relations Review, 38(4), 609-618; and Fitch,
K. & Desai,
R. (2012). Developing global practitioners: Addressing industry
expectations of intercultural competence in public relations
graduates in
Singapore and Perth. Journal of International Communication,
18(1), 63-
78.
Learning objectives
On successful completion of the unit you should be
able to:
1. Critically evaluate the relationship between
culture and public relations, and between
globalisation and public relations

2. Recognise the links between socio-cultural
contexts and public relations practice
3. Understand the need for intercultural
competence in public relations practice
4. Demonstrate awareness of specific cultural
contexts in relation to public relations practice.
Diversity
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To ‘unpack’ the concept of
diversity and its significance
for public relations
• To consider the impact of
race and gender on public
relations
• To consider the ways in
which occupational closure
ensures particular
conceptualisations of PR

Image: PR Couture
Diversity in PR
• “PR produces discourses that help
constitute and sustain the relative
positions of different groups in society as
well as within the profession itself”
(Edwards 2011, p.75).
• PR is an occupation that is “biased towards
… a middle-class, white identity” (Edwards,
2014, p. 98).
• This topic therefore examines power and
public relations.
Diversity issues in PR
• Bainbridge, J. (2014, Feb 6). Sexuality, gender and racial
equality: Why workplace diversity is good for marketing
[www.marketingmagazine.co.uk, 2014]. Marketing.
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1229614/sexu
ality-gender-racial-equality-why-workplace-diversity-good-
marketing
• Bhasin, K. (2015, Feb 19) Fashion company tweets about its
interns; PR nightmare ensues. Bloomberg.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-
18/fashion-company-tweets-about-its-interns-pr-nightmare-
ensues

• Coffee, P. (2014, Feb 7). PR vet plans hunger strike to
protest industry’s lack of diversity. Adweek.
http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/pr-vet-plans-hunger-
strike-to-protest-industrys-lack-of-diversity/85912
PR students
@ Murdoch
PR Facebook page
Post-colonial and critical race
theories
• PR practitioners’ lives are shaped by workplace,
professional, organisational, social contexts in the UK,
USA (and countries significantly influenced by their
histories). These contexts are influenced by
“whiteness.”
• Edwards uses “the term[s] ‘other’ and ‘othering’ to
describe individuals and groups who are made to feel
different in some way from the social, professional and
Western-oriented norm that characterises public
relations” (Said, 1995; Byerly, 2007 cited in Edwards
2011, p. 76).
• Whiteness, “is a system of privilege, an orientation
that serves as the norm against which all ‘others’ are
measured (Edwards 2011, p. 79).

• Edwards privileges social and moral arguments over
the business case
Gender: Industry concerns
• Concerns about the dominance of women in the
industry: “pink ghetto”; “gangs of women”; “too
feminized”; “girls and gay guys” (McIntyre, 2012;
Salzman, 2013: Shepherd, 2012)
• “the glass ceiling doesn’t seem to exist” (Turnbull,
2010, 2012)
• “The practice of PR is an inherently feminine
activity” and “women have a head start.” (Pearce,
2012)
• “Being female means we think differently to men,
work differently to men and are motivated by very
different things.” (Moore, 2013).
Feminist PR scholarship
• General consensus is that feminist public
relations scholarship is underdeveloped.
• Most research is liberal feminist in its focus
on gender inequity in salaries, status &
roles with some radical feminist research
promoting, for instance, feminine-coded
values of cooperation, respect, caring, &
intuition.

• Critical: challenges existing assumptions &
opens up scholarship beyond the dominant
paradigm – leads to different kinds of
questions
Gender and power
• Gender is a socially constructed identity that allows the
investigation of power and power relations, along with
the structural processes that produce gendered
discourse, rather than being male or female. (Butler,
1999)
• Public relations scholars need to consider how gender
relations play out in everyday interactions, formal
organisational processes and governance structures.
• For example, the need for professional recognition
results in an exclusionary occupational identity for
public relations and contributes to occupational
closure. The question of “fit” points to implicit coding
in terms of race, class, and gender. (Edwards, 2014)
• Intersectionality: a recognition that exploring concepts
such as gender and race may oversimplify issues; such
categories intersect and amplify impacts of
marginalisation.
Future practitioners should…
• Think of gender and race as processes of

constructing social identity rather than extant
categories.
• Consider the social impact of public relations
activity and use this to inform decision-making.
• Be reflexive: how does public relations activity
contribute to organisations holding and not
sharing power?
• Pay attention to the ways gendered and racist
(even implicit) thinking constrains public relations:
share information, mentor men and women, and
be proactive about gender and race issues in the
workplace.
More research…
• More research is needed into public relations in diverse social
contexts. Much of the current work on diversity relates to UK
and
US contexts.
• More research into race and gender in public relations is
needed,
although there have been important edited collections in 2013
that
explored gender and LGBT perspectives, these tend to relate to
Anglo-American industries and contexts.
• How do these understandings of both gender and race diversity
and public relations apply to various countries in Asia
(including
Australia)?

Further reading
• Daymon C., & Demetrious K. (Eds.) (2014). Gender and
public relations: Critical perspectives on voice, image and
identity. London, UK: Routledge
• Edwards, L. (2014). Power, diversity and public relations.
London, UK: Routledge
• Fitch, K. (2016). Feminism and public relations. In J.
L’Etang, D. McKie, N. Snow & J. Xifra (Eds.), Routledge
Handbook of Critical Public Relations (pp. 54–64). London,
UK: Routledge.
• Vardeman-Winter, J., Tindall, N., & Jiang, H. (2013).
Intersectionality and publics: How exploring publics’ multiple
identities questions basic public relations concepts. Public
Relations Inquiry, 2, 279–304.
• Tindall, N., & Waters, R. (Eds.) (2013). Coming out of the
closet: Exploring LGBT issues in strategic communication
with theory and research. New York, NY: Peter Lang
Questions?
Histories of public relations
Dr Kate Fitch

School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To introduce public relations history and historiography
• To reveal the ideologies underpinning different
perspectives on public relations history
• To consider how these ideologies shape current
understandings of public relations and its
development.
• To consider new perspectives on public relations
history.
Torches of Freedom
“Modern propaganda is a consistent,
enduring effort to create or shape events
to influence the relations of the public to
an enterprise, idea or group.” (Bernays,
1928)
“After WWI, Bernays was hired by the
American Tobacco Company to encourage
women to start smoking. …He then told
the press to expect that women suffragists
would light up ‘torches of freedom’ during
the parade to show they were equal to
men.” (Source:

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/02/27/torches-of-
freedom-women-and-smoking-propaganda/)
Karen Miller Russell: we need to reclaim
embarrassing moments in PR history – it
did not emerge suddenly in corporate
America in twentieth century.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/02/27/torches-of-
freedom-women-and-smoking-propaganda/
US models
• Historical periods – ‘colligation’
(periodisation)
• ‘The’ four (US historical) models:
publicity/press agentry; public
information; one-way asymmetrical;
two-way symmetrical
• Historical periods used as
developmental typology
• Privileging US experience
• Application to other cultures
Multiple perspectives
• Explosion of PR history within and
outwith field

• Counter-narratives
• Grand narratives and generalised
accounts versus archival/testimonial
evidence
• Re-conceptualisation of the field and its
boundaries
Australian PR history
• Textbook histories refer to World War II as a
catalyst for Australian public relations.
• One of General Douglas Macarthur’s team, Asher
Joel, was instrumental in establishing a
professional institute.
• Most memoirs and perspectives understand
Australian public relations in terms of its steady
development towards professional status.
• The understanding of public relations is arguably a
narrow conceptualisation that uncritically positions
public relations as a management discipline in the
corporate sector and ignores other kinds of PR
activity.
Gender, history & professionalism
• Australian public relations history is highly
gendered: heroes, legends, founding fathers, ‘Man

of Achievement’ awards
• Mid-twentieth century saw the emergence of two
professional institutes: AIPR in Sydney and PRIA
(Victoria) in Melbourne
• Women made up approximately 15% of financial
members of PRIA in 1956 and served on
committees, wrote newsletter articles and
columns
Jessie Fawsitt
‘interviewing agents, arranging window displays, dealing,
with press publicity and occasional secretarial work for
executives visiting, from overseas’ (Arrived on a Visit, 1949)
‘many media—the press, radio, films, exhibitions, window
displays, posters, photographs and colourful literature [and]
compering fashion parades of clothes suitable for air travel’
(Air News, 1954)
organizing and compering beauty pageants, fashion parades,
and photography exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand,
managing relationships with department stores, and ensuring
extensive media coverage
(What We’re Doing, 1956).
Fashion & travel

Conceptualising the ‘other’
Gender in Australian PR
history
• More opportunities for women and
work through increased access to
education, second-wave feminism, &
expansion of corporate sector and
knowledge economy in the 1980s
• Increasing institutionalisation and
professionalisation of public relations,
with PRIA’s greater regulation of
membership from mid-1980s
• Resulted in a gendered stratification
between technical and professional
work that continues to constrain
understandings of public relations
Image: Ellis, R. (1983)
A manifesto for PR history
• Challenge histories of public relations
• Question the sources of evidence,
especially practitioner memoirs
• Consider the ideology underpinning
particularly conceptualisations of public

relations
• Seek documentary evidence to support
claims
• Explore the particular social and political
contexts for public relations activity
Critical-Thinking.docx
CRITICAL THINKING - GETTING STARTED
At university there is a great deal of focus on not accepting
information as valid unless it has been checked. One of the key
tools for checking, is critical thinking. Each time we make an
important decision and weigh up strengths and weakness;
evidence for and against a decision, we are thinking critically.
We all do this all the time. The difference at university is that
you are asked to do it at almost every point in your studies and
are only allowed to use a certain type of information in your
decision making: peer reviewed evidence from academic
articles.
The first step in critical thinking is to ask questions. Here is a
seven step model to help get into the routine of asking
questions. Follow the seven step model to critical thinking
Step 1Describe: state what it is
Step 2 Analyse: break it down into component parts and
name them
Step 3Map: possiblerelationships between the parts

Step 4Ask: are there possible problems/issues with these
relationships?
Step 5 Evaluate: the ‘problems’
Step 6 Imagine: an alternative
Step 7 Apply steps 1-6 to the alternative.
Step 1: Describe - state what it is
· What is it/What is it not?
· In what context is it found (time, place etc.)?
· What is its purpose?Step 2: Analyse - break it down into its
component parts
· The term analysis means to break something down to its
constituent parts.
· What parts make up the whole? Name them Step 3: Identify
the relationship between parts, and between parts and the whole
· How is one part similar and /or different to another part…?
· How do the different parts interact with each other...?
· How are the different parts related to the whole…?Step 4:
Look for possible problems with these relationships
· What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different
parts…?
· How do these strengths and weaknesses impact on the
whole…?
· Why are relationships structured in this way…?Step 5:
Evaluate the problems
· Are the problems minor or major
· What are potential solutions to the problems
· What makes you think the solutions will work?Step 6: Imagine
an alternative
· How could it be different?
· What would it look like if it was different?Step 7: Apply steps
1-6 to the alternative
Example: Critical Thinking Applied to a Ballpoint PenStep 1:
Describe - state what it is
It is a ballpoint pen; it is a handwriting device that was invented
in the 20th century.Step 2: Analyse - break it down into its

component parts
The pen is made mainly from plastic. It contains ink, which
comes out of a small pointed metal end. The names of the parts
are: an external sheath that has the name of the company that
produced it printed on it; an inner tube that holds ink that flows
to the writing point at one end and a stopper at the other end
that holds the inner tube in place
Step 3: Identify the relationship between parts, and between
parts and the whole
The ink in the inner tube is used up when someone writes with
it. The stopper at the other end is extremely difficult to remove
without destroying the outer plastic tube. Step 4: Look for
possible problems with these relationships
The relationship between the decreasing ink and the difficult-to-
remove stopper suggests that it would be difficult to refill the
ink tube, once the available ink has been used up. Step 5:
Evaluate the problems
The structure of this pen means that once the ink has gone, a
new pen will be needed. This would be a problem if someone
has no money, or if there is no shop that sells pens nearby.
There are also ethical problems with discarding the pen: will it
be detrimental to the environment? Are plastic pens a good use
of resources? What industrial wastes are created in the
production of plastic pens? Will using this pen contribute to the
exploitation of people working in the factories that make the
parts? Step 6: Imagine an alternative
A ‘refillable’ pen that is ‘environmentally friendly’, is made by
a company that is good to its employees, is affordable for a
struggling student and lasts a lifetime?
Step 7: Describe such a pen and begin the six steps again
A fountain pen that is refillable from an ink-bottle.
Page 1 ©CUTL, Murdoch University
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©CUTL, Murdoch University
Effectively_reading_journal_articles.doc
EFFECTIVELY READING JOURNAL ARTICLES
Reading an article from an academic journal is different to other
forms of reading: it is more like working out a puzzle than
enjoying reading a narrative. This changes your approach to
reading, and puts the emphasis on the purpose for reading. Ask
yourself:
· Why am I reading this article?
· Is it to gain information about a topic for an assignment?
· How will it help me meet the learning objectives of the unit?
Unpack the puzzle by scanning
Scan the title, the subheadings, the conclusion and the
introduction before reading the article from start to finish. Ask
yourself:
Title
· What does the title tell me about the intention of the author?
· What is being highlighted as important by the title?
· How does the title read if I turn it into a question?
Headings and Subheadings
· What is the author signalling about the argument by the
headings/subheadings?
· How do the subheadings read if I turn them into questions?
Graphics (Illustration, Pictures, Diagrams & Tables)

· What do these tell me?
· Can I relate this information to the title, headings or
subheadings?
Conclusion and Introduction
· Does the writer explicitly state the purpose, aims and or
argument in the introduction or conclusion? What is it?
Key terms
· What are the key terms used in the first few paragraphs or last
few paragraphs?
Engage with the puzzle
Before reading the article from start to finish write out your
initial impressions after this quick scan. Moving between
reading and writing engages the higher functions of your mind
and will make it easier to take in new material. Understand the
structure of the article
Academic articles are usually arguing for (or against a claim).
Ask yourself: is this section of the reading expanding on the
main point of the argument? Or is it describing an example
(such as a case study) to use as evidence to support the
argument? This will allow you to more quickly identify what
the key points are in the article.
Reading is an active and essential part of university learning
and it is all right if you need to re-read an academic text a few
times. That is normal.
Page 1
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© Student Learning, Murdoch University
Finding information.docx
Finding information

Once you have identified the key components of the assessment
task and brainstormed the topic, it is important to form a
tentative answer or thesis. The next step is to develop the key
points you will use to support your position or thesis. This step
is important because it help you to focus your search to specific
areas.
Stella Cottrell (2008) suggests the following steps to save you
time and focus your research:
· Organise and plan: This involves allocating your time
according to the task. You may find that for each phase of the
research and writing process you will need to allocate more
time than first thought.
· Read Carefully through the assessment instructions: Look to
determine if you are being asked to: argue, discuss, evaluate
etc, and pay attention to the word count. For more on analysing
essay questions (pdf).
· Consider the purpose of the assignment: Ask questions such
as, why this particular topic and why this particular wording? It
is highly unlikely that you are being asked to state the obvious.
One reason essays and reports are used for assessment tasks is
to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate how you
have thought about the topic or issue.
· Check the marking criteria: Make sure that you address each
· Scale your research to the time and the word limits.
(Cottrell. S. (2008). The Study Skills Handbook (3rd Ed). New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.)
(Murdoch Library: 371.30281 COT 2008 )
Mindmapping-.doc
MIND MAPPING
Mind mapping is a non-linear, graphic way of organising
information. It allows you to focus on the relationships between
ideas. It may also be something you have never tried before.

Mind mapping can be useful to:
· Brainstorm ideas for essays or other assignments,
· Summarise a lecture, article or book chapter,
· Revise for exams – mind maps are more visually stimulating
than traditional notes.
To make a mind map you will need:
1. Blank paper (the bigger the better. A4 will do, but try A3,
two sheets joined together or even a whiteboard)
2. Pens – different coloured ones!
Let’s assume you are developing ideas for an essay.
Step 1: Identify the Central Concept
Orientate the paper in ‘landscape’ (i.e. the longest edges on the
top & bottom). Identify the central concept of the essay you are
working on and either write this in capital letters in the centre
of the page or draw an image that represents that concept. You
want this central text or image to be between 2-5cm high – big
enough to read or recognise with a single glance.
Step 2: Write down the main points
Identify ideas and issues that you think could be important to
the central concept. Summarise these ideas using a few key
words. Using a different coloured pen, each of these main ideas
is written down around the central concept and joined to it with
thick lines or arrows.

Step 3: Brainstorm other ideas and details
Start to add ideas and examples to the main ideas, once again,
using a different colour once again, and connect them to one
another using thinner lines. Work quickly – you are
brainstorming possibilities at this stage. Don’t stop to edit
ideas during this initial process.
Step 4: Let your mind flow
Add more levels as your ideas develop. These will branch out
away from the centre. You might already see relationships and
connections between ideas, in which case you can indicate these
with lines and arrows. Do not be concerned if the connections
are not obvious at this point, just keep working from the central
idea and organise the concepts later (in a second mind map).
Tip!
The further you move from the centre the more specific (or
detailed) your notes will become.
Step 5: Do it a second time!
Yes – this is a serious suggestion (. You might not want to do it
immediately, but don’t leave it more than a day or two. The
second mind map is an opportunity to reorganise your ideas,
edit them if necessary, and develop the structure your essay will
take. If you are using mind maps as a form of revision, then you
should revisit these on a regular basis, refining the map each
time.
Tips!

Use images as much as you can – this helps engage parts of
your brain that writing on its own would not.
Use different colours to: follow a path of ideas, emphasise
certain things, differentiate concepts from one another.
Use the handout on Analysing an essay question to assist you
work out the central concept.
Use the handout on Planning Your Essay to work through the
next stage in academic writing.
Using Mind Mapping to Summarise a Lecture, Article or
Chapter of
a Book
Follow the steps above, but aim to have the thesis statement in
the centre of the mind map.
Hint:
The thesis statement is a general statement about the essay's
topic. It may be a concise and general summary of the main
points of the essay, or it may be the logical conclusion to the
argument made in the essay. In other words, it is the author’s
main message. A thesis can appear in any part of the essay, but
it is most often placed in the introductory paragraph and, next-
most-often, in the conclusion.
Identify the author’s main points and place these around the
thesis statement. From there, map how the author has
structured their argument and work outwards from the central
idea.
Other Resources:
Buzan, Tony. 2002. How to Mind Map. London: Thorsons.

Landsberger, Joe. 1996. Concept- or Mind-mapping for
Learning. http://www.studygs.net/mapping/ (accessed May
2006)
Mind Map Examples. Illumne Training. http://www.mind-
mapping.co.uk/mind-maps-examples.htm (accessed May 2006)
Page 1
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Paraphrasing-and-Referencing-.docx
PARAPHRASING AND REFERENCINGWhat is a
‘paraphrase’?
When you paraphrase you put someone else’s ideas and words
into your own words. This usually includes summarising key
points from a text and drawing out the essential meaning of the
information. The important aspect of paraphrasing is that you
are expressing yourunderstanding of someone else’s work. Thus
you need to reference where the information or idea came from
by referring to the author (in-text citation) and you also need to
make sure that you have used your own words to restate the
information and ideas.
Tip!
Remember that your essay is expected to be more than 90%
written in your own words, and therefore you cannot rely too
heavily on using quotations, so paraphrasing sources is a

necessary and important essay writing skill.
How can I avoid inappropriate or inadequate acknowledgement?
To avoid unintentionally plagiarising, you must always
reference all your sources correctly and either paraphrase the
ideas in your own words or use a direct quote. Remember the 4
words rule: when you use 4 words or more in a row from a
source it has to written as a direct quotation. And placed
within”…” quotation marks and then you must tell your reader
where you found that information. How do I paraphrase?
· Make sure that you fully understand the passage, quotation or
ideas expressed.
· Think about how you can reorganise these ideas, keeping the
meaning the same.
· Change the wording (vocabulary) using synonyms (words of
similar meaning) or alternative expressions, or change the
structure (grammar) of the original passage, but again, you
cannot change the meaning of the original passage/idea.
· Incorporate the paraphrase into your essay.
· Make sure you have included the in-text citation (author’s
surname, year).
Tip!
Quotation marks are not used when the work of an author
has been paraphrased, but an in-text citation is always necessary
to indicate that the ideas expressed are taken from another
source and not purely from your own thoughts When using a
quote, page numbers are ALWAYS required as part of the in-
text citation, but when paraphrasing, page numbers are not
necessary.
Have you completed your Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP)?
Page 1 © CUTL, Murdoch University

Planning-your-essay.doc
PLANNING YOUR ESSAY
Writing can be very enjoyable but it is often difficult to get
started. It is especially difficult when we are writing for an
assignment that will be graded. Writing an essay plan can help
because no-one is going to mark it! It is a low stakes activity.
Start with ‘my thinking’
Try writing freely using these prompts: remember no-one else is
going to read this writing.
1. What do I really think about this topic/question?
2. What have I found in my reading that I think is interesting?
3. What parts of my readings, lectures do I think are connected
to each other?
4. If I drew a mind-map or flow diagram which texts would I
use?
5. If I took a position on this issue, what would it be?
6. Why do I think that? What reasons can I give as to why I
think this?
7. How could I use references to support my position?
Turn ‘my thinking’ into my thesis statement
A thesis statement is the sentence that sums up my position. It
is my mainmessage of the essay and often appears as the second
last sentence of the introduction. A thesis statement is: a
defendable claim.
The word thesis means ‘argument’ (in the academic sense) so a

thesis statement can always be disagreed with and, therefore,
needs to be defended. If a claim is too broad, it is very hard to
defend so avoid making generalisations. Try out different
versions of a thesis statement, to make sure that it is a claim.
For example write: ‘This essay argues that (insert your thesis
statement). Does it make grammatical sense? Have you got a
claim? [Note: there is no need to include the phrase, ‘This essay
argues that’ in the final version].
Take a quiz
Which is the best thesis statement (1, 2, or 3) for the essay
question: Discuss the possible effects of owning a pet on the
health and wellbeing of elderly people.
1. Pets are good for elderly people.
2. Pet ownership sometimes helps elderly people to feel useful;
however, they can also be expensive and a health hazard in
themselves.
3. Pet ownership can make a valuable contribution to the health
and wellbeing of elderly people.
Answers to Quiz
1. Is not a good thesis statement because it is too broad – does
not frame the position in a context, or limit the scope of the
essay. After all pets will not be good for all elderly people in
all circumstances.
2. Is not a good thesis statement because it tries to argue two
things, which makes it difficult to support. Also, it does not
relate closely enough to the essay question (does not address the
key concepts).

3. Is a good thesis statement. It addresses the question, offers
scope for exploring a few main points, but does not pretend to
be exhaustive. The writer can argue that there are some
benefits. This thesis statement is defendable with logic,
examples, and researched information.
Essay Plan Example:
Thesis statement: Pet ownership can make a valuable
contribution to the health and welfare of elderly people.
Three reasons (or supporting points) in support of this claim
· Pets provide an external focus to keep the owner actively
engaged.
· The responsibilities of pet care provide a daily routine.
· The physicality of owning a pet is an aid to the owner’s
health.
Each reason needs to have its own paragraph and at least one
reference in support of it. These paragraphs become the body of
the essay. Find a reason through free writing and brainstorming
around ‘Why do I think this?’ Checklist for my plan
( The thesis statement addresses the key concepts in the essay
question
( The thesis statement is clear and defendable
( The supporting points support/defend the thesis statement.
( There are references that act as evidence for the supporting
points in each paragraph.
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Quoting-correctly.docx
QUOTING CORRECTLY
Correctly quoting other people’s words is an important part of
writing research essays. Once you understand the rules of
quotation it is very easy to do correctly. The first rule is that a
direct quotation must be clearly signalled in the text. What is a
direct quotation?
A direct quotation is when you copy someone else’s words.
These words can come from any source including web based, a
printed page (book, journal article, newspaper, magazine etc)
and/or a visual source such as a film. To show that these words
are copied from somewhere else you must use the quotation
marks “….” to indicate this. All the words and punctuation
marks that are enclosed within the “…” are then understood to
be from another source and you must tell your reader what that
source is and where it can be found through appropriate
referencing (in-text and reference list).
An in-text citation is always necessary to indicate that another
author’s words are being used. The full bibliographic details
must be provided in a reference list. How you actually do this
will depend on which referencing style you need to use - look in
your unit guide or ask your tutor if you are not sure.
Tip!
Page numbers should always be included for direct quotations to

enable a reader to locate the quotation easily in the original
source if they want to.
Why should I use a direct quotation?
Use quotations carefully within your writing and always
consider what the point is that you want to make with the
quotation. It may be that the quotation sums up an important
point of the essay and you therefore place it towards the end of
your elaborations and discussions of this point. You may want
to introduce the quotation by stating that you think this is a
good summary, alternatively in the sentence after the quotation
refer back to it and make some comment about what you think it
means and why you thought it important enough to include in
your essay or report. The following quotation (note the
quotation marks and in-text reference) summarises these
reasons:
“Quotations can be useful:
· to express a thought or concept succinctly;
· to illustrate a point you want to make;
· to convey the flavour of a work;
· to analyse in-depth the exact words of an author.” (Marshall &
Rowland, 2006, p.244)How often can I directly quote?
Mainly use your own words in writing an essay. The general
rule is: an essay can only use 10% quotations. How should I
present a direct quotation in an essay?
A short quotation should sit within a sentence that you have
written. The sentence needs to be grammatically correct and
there should be an easy flow from your words to the quotation.
There are several ways that you can do this:
Examples:
Merchant states that, a “vision in which nature is held in
esteem as mother and Goddess is a source of inspiration and
empowerment for many ecofeminists” (1990, p.101).
According to Merchant (1990) many ecofeminists draw

“inspiration and empowerment” from a “vision in which nature
is held in esteem as mother and Goddess”(p.101).
Ecofeminists are considered to share a “vision in which
nature is held in esteem as mother and Goddess” (Merchant,
1990, p.101)
You should copy the exact words and the exact punctuation,
including any capital letters and italics, in a direct
quotation.Shortening a quotation
It may be necessary to shorten a quotation in order to make it fit
with your writing and the point you are making. If you have
omitted any words from the quotation you must indicate this
with three dots.
Example:
As Ballard and Clanchy (1988) have argued, “Learning within
the university is a process of gradual socialization into a
distinctive culture of knowledge, and … literacy must be seen in
terms of the functions to which language is put in that culture”
(p.14).
Tip!
If you choose to leave out a word or words from the quote it
must not change the intended meaning of the statement. You
cannot take a quote “I do not agree” and then write “I …
agree”!
It may be necessary for you to include a word, change the
punctuation or insert or delete a capital letter in order for the
quotation to make sense in your paragraph, these changes
should be indicated through the use of square brackets.
Example:
Pakulski, (1991, p.28) considers “developing new forms of

participation, [and] facilitating the process of communication”
to be two important factors in modern social movements.Longer
quotations
If the quotation is longer than three lines or 40 words, it is
usually presented as an indented block. To mark the quotation
clearly from the main text, it is also usually single spaced
(rather than the normal 1.5 space) and in a smaller font size (for
example 10 or 11 point). This formatting is sufficient to
indicate that this is a quotation so quotation marks are not
necessary.
Example:
New social movement theorists differ from collective behaviour
theorists in their explanation of protest movements. The new
social movement theorists
see mass mobilisations as rational, and potentially therapeutic -
as promoting self-awareness and collective learning, developing
new forms of participation, facilitating the process of
communication, forming new identities, experimenting with new
cultural codes, and reviving and expanding the public realm
(civil society) stultified by formalised and instrumental state
interventions (Pakulski, 1991, p.28).
Tip!
The author, date of publication and page number must be given
in an in-text reference and must accompany all quotations .
Quoting other people’s quotations
If you use a quotation that another author has referenced this is
called a secondary quote. Check with the citation guide (on the
Library website) for the referencing system you are using and
how to reference this correctly.

Tip!
To make sure you have the style of your referencing system
correct check your work against the examples set out in the
‘How to Cite References’ website
http://library.murdoch.edu.au/Students/Referencing/
Use the checklist
Go through your essay and check off in the boxes below to
make sure that you have quoted correctly.
· Is the quotation exactly the same as the original (including
punctuation)?
· If you alter the quotation in any way (e.g. leave words out,
add emphasis, add a word), have you appropriately indicated
this and not changed the meaning of the original?
· Is the quotation short (if long, then do a block or indented
quote) and clearly marked with quotation marks or inverted
commas (“........”)?
· Is there a complete in-text citation (author’s surname, date of
publication and page number)?
· Have you introduced and integrated the quotation smoothly
and grammatically into your writing?
Tip!
Go to the Library’s Citation Guides:
to find the guide for the referencing style you are using.

My favourite section of the guide is “all examples”- I always
have the guide handy when I am writing so that I can reference
correctly.
References
Ballard, B. & Clanchy, J. (1988). Literacy in the university: an
'anthropological' approach. Maidenhead, UK: Open
University Press.
Marshall, L. & Rowland, F. (1998). A guide to learning
independently (3rd ed). Melbourne: Addison Wesley
Longman.
Merchant, C. (1989). The death of nature: women, ecology, and
the scientific revolution. New York : Harper & Row.
Pakulski, J. (1991). Social movements: the politics of moral
protest. Melbourne : Longman Cheshire.
Walden, M. (2004). ‘The face: Murray Walden meets Charlotte
Wood, novelist.’ The Weekend Australian Review, Feb 28-
29, p. R3.
Zamel, V. (1992). ‘Writing one’s way into reading.’ TESOL
Quarterly, 26, 463-485.
Note
The Referencing style used in this handout (in-text and end-of-
text) is the APA (American Psychological Association) style of
Author-Date referencing.
Page 2 © Student Learning, Murdoch University
Page 4 ©CUTL, Murdoch University
Referencing.docx
Referencing
Students undertaking PR units at Murdoch University have been

asked to use either APA or Chicago referencing. Please refer to
the Murdoch University Library’s tips on how to correctly use
the different types of references
Why you cite and reference your sources
“When academics write... they not only present their idea but
also refer to the ideas of other academics. This means they need
a way to distinguish between their own ideas and the ideas of
other people” (Brick, 2006, p. 98).
Systems used to reference your work
There are two common ways of referencing used in academia
and at Murdoch University to tell the reader of your essay or
report the sources of your information or ideas. These are
· Author - Date citations within the text, such as (Marshall &
Rowland, 2006), with the complete referencing details in an
alphabetically arranged reference list at the end of the
document. Note that in-text citations use only the surname(s) of
the author(s), the date of publication, and the page number (if
necessary).
· Numbering citations using numbers either in a superscript1or
in brackets (1) within the text, with the complete referencing
details as a footnote at the foot of the page or in endnotes at the
end of the document. Note that both footnotes and endnotes
have the option of an additional comment or notes about the
particular source.
Using sources in your text
Perhaps one of the best ways to learn how and what to
reference, quote and paraphrase is to pay careful attention to
what you read in your units. This material has usually been
through a thorough process of drafting and editing and would
not be published if it failed to demonstrate all of the
conventions of sound academic writing for that particular
discipline. Over time you will start to notice how these authors
structure arguments, use transitions and connectives and
introduce quotes. For example, you may notice that authors

frequently use a range of introductions such as the following:
· Smith’s point is that…
· Smith’s point of view is that…
· According to Smith,…
· From Smith’s point of view…
· The point of Smith’s article/paper is that...
· The substance of Smith’s article/paper is that…
· Some theorists, such as Smith (1989) think that…
· It is thought by some theorists, for example, Jones (1980) and
Smith (1989), that…
Using-transitional-words-and-phrases-.doc
Using transitional words and phrases when writing an essay
Transitional words and phrases describe relationships between
ideas but do not by themselves create the relationship between
the ideas. The relationship between the ideas has to be built up
also by the context and evidence presented in your writing. Here
are some commonly used transitional words and phrases you can
use to signal your intent in your essay.
To show that you are adding further evidence to your argument:
also, again, as well as, besides, coupled with, furthermore, in
addition, likewise, moreover, similarly
To show a consequence between two factors in your argument:
accordingly, as a result, consequently, for this reason, for this
purpose, hence, otherwise, so then, subsequently, therefore,
thus, thereupon, wherefore

To make a general claim in for your argument:
as a rule, as usual, for the most part, generally, ordinarily,
usually
To point out that you are illustrating a point of your argument:
for example, for instance, for one thing, as an illustration, in
this case
To emphasise a point of your argument
above all, chiefly, with attention to, especially, particularly,
singularly
To make a comparison of the similarity between two points in
your argument:
comparatively, coupled with, correspondingly, identically,
likewise, similar, moreover, together with
To make a contrast with another point of view in your essay:
on one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, rather, yet, but,
however, still, nevertheless, in contrast
To make an exception of a case in your argument:
aside from, barring, besides, except, excepting, excluding, other
than, outside of, save
To restate your position:
in essence, in other words, namely, that is, that is to say, in
short, in brief, to put it differently

To summarize your argument:
after all, all things considered, briefly, by and large, in any
case, in any event,
in brief, in conclusion, on the whole, in short, in summary, in
the final analysis,
in the long run, on balance, to sum up, to summarize, finally
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Writing-an-Essay-.doc
WRITING YOUR ESSAY
Once you have a good essay plan (see Planning Your Essay),
with a thesis statement and some main supporting points, you
can go on to build your argument in the form of an essay draft.
Keep in mind that an essay has a specific structure of:
introduction, body & conclusion. The introduction says what the
essay is about, the body gives the content and the conclusion
summarises and restates the main points.
Writing your introduction
An introduction leads your reader into the topic and sets out the
context. The number of words in an introduction should be
approximately 10% of the total essay word count. The structure
of the introduction is: sentence 1 - introduce the general

subject; sentence 2 -introduce the topic; sentence 3 - introduce
your position (thesis statement); sentence 4 - introduce the
essay as a document (first, second, third, finally); sentence 5 -
state the scope of the essay and say what you will not cover.
Hint!
The introduction gives an overview of your whole essay. Do
not go into too much specific detail; avoid quotes – this is a
‘big picture’ of YOUR argument. Save the detail for the body of
your essay.
Writing the paragraphs in the body of the essay
The body of an essay comprises a series of paragraphs in which
you support your thesis. In a 1-2000 word essay, each
paragraph will be 2-400 words. This is where your describe and
analyse the reasons in support of your thesis statement. Include
evidence to back up your reasons (this can be in the form of in-
text citations to other authors). Start each paragraph with a
topic sentence. This states the main point you will make in this
paragraph. The second sentence of a paragraph often expands
and explains this point. Begin and end each paragraph with
either clear or implied links to the previous and next
paragraphs, so that there are no big jumps of meaning, and there
is a sense of ‘flow’.
Writing your conclusion
The final paragraph of your essay should summarise your
argument. Do not add any new material. Remind the reader of
the main argument (your thesis) and the reasoning behind it
(your supporting points). Add any other remarks that emphasise
the significance of the thesis. You may want to point to other
implications that could be addressed in further research. The
number of words in a conclusion should be approximately 10%
of the total essay word count.

Plan to do a few drafts of your essay before you submit it.
Academics usually rewrite their work multiple times!
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PRO285
Nation-building and social transformation
Topic g
Nations and communication
• ‘an imagined political community – and imagined
as both inherently limited and sovereign’
(Anderson, 1991, p. 224)
• Modern, socially constructed, engendered by
print capitalism and shift to national languages
(rather than Latin)
• Linear narratives of nation, culture and identity,
i.e. ‘narrating the nation’ (Bhaba, 1990)
• ‘Nation’ is constructed and contested by various
discourses

Nation building & PR
• ‘national unity, national identity and nation
building are all created, maintained, and nurture
through strategic communication efforts.’ (Taylor
& Kent, p. 343)
• Relates to meaning-making and relational
processes
• ‘nations seek to create their own national
identities…[for] citizens…and create positive
national images and to influence international
media coverage for their benefit’ (Taylor & Kent,
p. 351).
Australia Day
• ‘an active orchestrated campaign involving a range of
public communication strategies, activities and tactics that
fit within established descriptions of the practice of public
relations. These include public events, public meetings,
speeches, promotional literature, promotional films, and
media publicity.’ (Macnamara & Crawford, 2010, pp. 28-9).
• Significant issues management required to address
‘Invasion Day’ critics.
• Various government communication activities to build
national identity and sense of nationhood (eg Asher Joel in
late 1938, 150 years since European settlement;
government films in 1899 to promote emigration to

Australia).
Olympics and public relations
• ‘cosmopolitan, global culture co-exists and
interacts with local, national cultures’
(Hargreaves, 2000, p. 56)
• Hargreaves argues the Olympics are an example
of displays of nationalism in a global context,
allowing competitive rivalry between nations and
national pride.
• ‘PR disasters’ – google in relation to the
Olympics and you will find many
Sydney Olympics
Photograph is Cathy Freeman at
the Commonwealth Games in
1994 – iconic image
(Photographer: David Callow) of
Cathy with Aboriginal flag.
Controversial, as only ‘official’
flags are allowed at these
events.
There was tremendous pressure
on Freeman in the lead-up to
the Sydney Olympics, as she
was a medal contender for the
400m.

How did the Sydney Olympics
affect Brand Australia?
• US – didn’t change their attitude towards
‘cousins’ in exotic land; Hong Kong and Malaysia
remained unchanged in their attitude that
Australia was good to visit for business or
education purposes but not to live; and South
Africans changed their attitude because of the
suppression of Aboriginal peoples, and were
more negative towards Australia.
• From The Sydney Olympics and Foreign
Attitudes towards Australia, 2004
PR for social transformation
• Hodges & McGrath (2011) consider the potential
for public relations in community engagement
through empowerment and collaboration.
• This kind of public relations shifts the emphasis
from promoting organisational interests.
• Public relations becomes instead a social
process, which invests in relationships and
communities.
• See the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum
http://www.iap2.org.au/documents/item/84

Communication for social
change
• Communication for Social Change (CFSC) is a process of
public and private dialogue through which people
themselves define who they are, what they need, and how
they will work together to get what they want and need in
order to improve their lives and their communities.
• We believe that success can only be achieved through the
meaningful engagement of key stakeholders so local
voices are heard and acted on.
• Our Mission
• Our mission is to help people living in poor communities
communicate effectively so that they can be the best
advocates for the change needed to improve their lives,
communities and countries.
Culture
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To develop an understanding of culture, ‘one…of the

most complicated words in the English language’
(Williams 1976, p. 78)
• To introduce anthropological and ethnographic
approaches to public relations research
• To consider public relations in relation to culture –
how public relations is influenced by, and influences,
‘culture’
About culture…
• Multi-discursive i.e. meaning is determined in relation to
particular
discursive contexts
• Contested i.e. it can be challenged, refused, negotiated, chosen
• Dynamic i.e. it is not static but a meaning-making process
• Historical i.e. its multiple meanings are derived partly from its
different uses
• Decolonised i.e. 1960s cultural studies reworked ‘culture’,
allowing
a focus on the reproduction of social/power inequality
(significant
in globalising world).
Definitions of culture
• ‘the production and circulation of sense, meaning and

consciousness … the sphere of reproduction’
(Hartley, 2002, p. 51)
• ‘the ensemble of social processes by which meanings
are produced, circulated, exchanged … the site of the
production of meanings’ (Thwaites, cited in Davis
& Mules, 1994, pp. 1, 2)
• ‘the total life of a people … the social legacy the
individual acquires from his group’ (Geertz, cited in
L’Etang, 2009, p. 16)
Anthropology
• Study of ‘other’ cultures
• Traditionally, anthropology assumes culture is ‘objectively
observable, systemic and pattern-oriented and pertains to values
and behaviours that are common to all who are part of a given
culture’ (Bardhan & Weaver, 2011, p. 8).
• Babakiueria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06DKCdJWK2c
• Useful to examine cultures in different contexts e.g.
occupations,
organisations, niche practices; offer alternative ways of
thinking
about public relations
Ethnography

• In PR research, using ethnography can help
understand public relations and its effects in different
ways.
• For example, understanding workers’ meaning
making systems (Mills, 2002); interpreting the social
role of public relations in a postmodern city (Hodges,
2011); and defining public relations in terms of the
work actually performed in one sector (Cassidy,
2011).
In public relations
• Much 1990s research drew on Hofstede’s significant,
large-scale, longitudinal study of over 70 countries,
which mapped four dimensions of national culture.
• Research into ‘other’ countries tends to compare
their practices against US benchmark.
• Public relations should focus on ‘building positive
multicultural relationships and communities.’ (Banks,
2000, p. x).
Doing culture
• ‘cultural intermediary’ (Hodges, 2006; Curtin &
Gaither, 2007), requires cultural reflexivity ‘allowing
them to see the world in terms other than their own’
(Curtin & Gaither, 2007, p. 262)
• ‘culture workers’ – practitioners continuously cross

cultures (’border crossings’) within and between
organisations and communities (on and offline)
(L’Etang, 2011, p. 19)
• Public relations as occupational culture (Edwards,
2014)
Facebook
Protesting the intervention
(2010)
Facebook response
• We are aware that people sometimes share
content containing nudity for reasons like
awareness campaigns, artistic projects or cultural
investigations. The reason we restrict the display
of nudity is because some audiences within our
global community may be sensitive to this type of
content – particularly because of cultural
background or age. In order to treat people fairly
and respond to reports quickly, it is essential that
we have policies in place that our global teams can
apply uniformly and easily when reviewing
content. As a result, our policies can sometimes be
more blunt than we would like, and restrict
content shared for legitimate purposes. We
encourage people to share Celeste Liddle’s speech
on Facebook by simply removing the image before

posting it.
Practitioner perspectives
• Knowledge of world affairs: ‘we are … in a globalised
community
and you need to understand it in a broader context’ particularly
with international clients, regional activity and culturally
diverse
communities.
• Understanding cultural difference: ‘explaining and accepting
the
differences, that one shoe does not fit all’
• Working in other countries: need awareness of ‘all these
protocols
about how you deal with Chinese business people, what’s
acceptable and what’s not…’
• Developing openness: ‘the willingness and openness to
understanding cultural differences’
• Developing assertiveness and curiosity: ‘we have brainstorms
…
and no one will say a word’
Conclusions
• Public relations requires cultural competence.
• Public relations practice negotiates culture(s), by

crossing boundaries within and across nations.
• Public relations requires global, as well as local,
knowledge.
• Public relations needs to be recognised as a Western
corporate business practice.
• Public relations practitioners require reflexivity in
relation to their cultural heritage as well as the
cultural values underpinning industry practices and
knowledge.
Further reading
• Liddle, C. (2016, March 9). Looking Past White Australia
and White Feminism. New Matilda.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/03/09/looking-past-
white-australia-and-white-feminism/
• Graham, C. (2016, March 11). Kim Kardashian vs
Aboriginal Culture: Only One Of These Images Has Been
Banned By Facebook. New Matilda.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/03/11/kim-kardashian-
vs-aboriginal-culture-only-of-these-images-has-been-
banned-by-facebook/
• Graham, C. (2016, March 13). Facebook Re-Re-
Suspends Black Feminist, Writer For ‘Offensive’ Images
Of Aboriginal Ceremony. New Matilda.
https://newmatilda.com/2016/03/13/prominent-black-
feminist-writer-petitions-facebook-as-more-users-
suspended-over-offensive-images/

Globalisation
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To offer a working definition of globalisation pertinent
to public relations
• To explore Appadurai’s notions of ethnoscape,
technoscape, finanscape, mediascape and ideoscape
(Pal & Dutta 2008)
• To introduce critical cosmopolitanism as a means of
interrogating globalisation and specific professional
(written) communication and public relations
practices
• To provide examples from writing/public relations to
concretise these concepts from a critical
cosmopolitan perspective.
Globalisation
Globalisation is variously defined by different scholars and
schools of
thought:

• ‘Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and
interdependence of peoples and countries, is generally
understood to
include two interrelated elements: the opening of borders to
increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and
ideas
across international borders; and the changes in institutional
and
policy regimes at the international and national levels that
facilitate or
promote such flows. It is recognized that globalization has both
positive and negative impacts on development.’ World Health
Organization
http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story043/en/index.html
• Globalization ‘denotes the expanding scale, growing
magnitude,
speeding up and deepening impact of transcontinental flows and
patterns of social interaction’ (Held and McGrew 2002, p.1).
• A ‘macroeconomic thesis’ (Appiah 2006, xiii)
http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story043/en/index.html
Globalisation
Appadurai’s -scapes
These flows contribute to structuring interactions and
diversity in a globalised world. They are not fixed
entities or identities, but shift and change according
to who, context, time and perspective:

• Ethnoscapes: flows and movements of people,
diasporic communities
• Technoscapes: communication flows through
networks (online, social media, etc.)
• Finanscapes: financial and capital flows
• Mediascapes: flows of mediated images, news, and
media ownership patterns
• Ideoscapes: flows of and contradiction between
competing ideologies.
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism, very broadly is the notion that all human
beings regardless of their status, location or political affiliation,
belong or can or should belong to one global community and
that this community should be nourished.
The word cosmopolitan comes from the Greek kosmopolitês
term meaning ‘citizen of the world’.
Cosmopolitanism foregrounds the ethical, interdependent
dimensions of living and communicating in the world with
others near and far, familiar and unfamiliar.
Public relations writing ‘has the potential to constitute a
resistance to the dehumanising and decontextualising effects of
a market economy-driven globalisation’ (Surma, 2013, p. 13).

Critical cosmopolitanism
Critical cosmopolitanism constitutes a ‘normative
critique’ of globalisation (Delanty 2009, p. 250)
It is a communicative, self-reflexive response to
the negative dimensions of globalisation or, as
Beck puts it, a cosmopolitan outlook consists in:
‘Global sense, a sense of boundarylessness. An
everyday, historically alert, reflexive awareness of
ambivalences in a milieu of blurring
differentiations and cultural contradictions. It
reveals not just the “anguish” but also the
possibility of shaping one’s life and social relations
under conditions of cultural mixture. It is
simultaneously a sceptical, disillusioned, self-
critical outlook’ (Beck 2006, p. 3).
Relevance to PR
A critical cosmopolitan approach to communication in
general and writing in particular helps us to both
write and evaluate texts in terms of their capacity to
be alert to the tensions between local and global,
centre and periphery, self and other (us and them),
similarity and difference.
Government communication
strategy

‘Silence echoes across Canberra as the Coalition clams
up’. (Hall, 2013)
‘This must be the first propaganda campaign in which
the country producing it is portrayed as a villain? What
was the government thinking?’ (Fletcher, 2014)
‘The veil of secrecy has worrying implications for press
freedom in Australia.’ (Callinan, 2014)
Extracts from Fletcher, 2014
• ‘The comic represents the asylum seeker as merely
an economic migrant: sick of working as a mechanic,
his parents encourage him to seek a better life in
Australia. Absent from this scene is violence and
persecution, or any understanding of why the family
is so poor. The boy seems to be an only child and the
primary breadwinner for the family. What has made
these parents so desperate to send their kid overseas
for a better life?’
• ‘There’s very little human contact in the comic.’
Serco
Whose financial interests are being protected and supported by
the
government’s asylumseeker policy?

From ‘About us’ on Serco website: ‘Serco makes a difference to
the
lives of millions of people around the world. Our customers are
national and local governments and leading companies. We have
more than 50 years' experience of helping them to achieve their
goals. By focusing on the needs of the people they serve, we
enable our customers to deliver better outcomes.’
The Australian community
The strength of the Australian community means that
we work together to solve problems and to make
Australia the great country that it is. We have a stable
system of government and Australians respect the
authority and laws of the government. Our stability,
our culture and our laws have been shaped by our
history. By joining the Australian community, you will
inherit this history and you will be in a position to
contribute to it (excerpt from Citizenship: our common
bond, Commonwealth of Australia 2009, p. 3).
… and their relevance for public

relations
Critical cosmopolitanism problematises the impulse
and tendency of globally-oriented communication
processes and practices to homogenise, to imply one
perspective as definitive or absolute; to deny or
ignore difference; to silence alternative voices.
References
Appiah, A. K. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of
strangers. New York, NY: WW Norton and
Co.
Beck, U. (2006). Cosmopolitan vision. Cambridge, England:
Polity Press.
Callinan, R. (2014). Manus Island: how information is kept
under control. The Sydney Morning Herald.
Accessed 3 March 2014 from
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/manus-island-how-
information-is-
kept-under-control-20140225-33eob.html
Commonwealth of Australia (2009). Citizenship: our common
bond, Commonwealth of Australia.
Delanty, G. (2006). The cosmopolitan imagination: The renewal
of critical social theory. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Fletcher, M. (2014, February 23). ‘I’m a conservative but this
asylum seeker comic is disgusting’. The
Guardian. Accessed 3 March 2014 from

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/13/asylum
-seekers-graphic-campaign
Hall, B. (2013, November 3). Silence echoes across Canberra as
the coalition clams up. Sydney Morning
Herald. Accessed 3 March 2014 from
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/silence-echoes-across-
canberra-as-the-coalition-clams-up-20131102-
2wt5k.html#ixzz2uu0jGBFW
Held D. & McGrew A. (2002). Globalization and anti-
globalization. Oxford, England: Blackwell
Publishing.
Macfarlane, E. (2014, February 14). The medium and the
message: Comics about asylum seekers. The
Conversation. Accessed 3 March 2014 from
http://theconversation.com/the-medium-and-the-
message-comics-about-asylum-seekers-23168
Surma, A. (2013). Imagining the cosmopolitan in public and
professional writing. Houndmills, England:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Popular Culture
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Popular culture

• The relationship between public relations and
popular culture is undertheorised.
• ‘culture making (and culture is always in
process, never achieved) is a social process …
culture (and its meanings and pleasures) is a
constant succession of social practices;
therefore, it is always political’ (Fiske, 1989)
• Rhodes and Westwood argue that popular
culture representations of work are ‘inherently
and explicitly critical’ and therefore enable a
critical interrogation (2008, p. 2).
PR in popular culture
• Studies of representations in popular culture found that
public relations practitioners tend to be male and antisocial
(Lee, 2001, 2009; Miller, 1999).
• Female practitioners are underrepresented and tend to be
‘all single (or divorced), white and middle class’ (Johnston,
2010, p. 13; Saltzman,2012).
• Public relations is often ‘manipulative, scheming and
unethical’ (Johnston, 2010. p. 13).
• These studies offer uncritical understandings of public
relations and representation and often conclude that
representations in popular culture do not reflect the reality
of the industry.

Personal traits
Miller (1999) found that PR characters had the following
characteristics:
• Ditzy
• Obsequious
• Cynical
• Manipulative
• Money-minded
• Isolated
• Accomplished
• Unfulfilled
The image of PR (Ames, 2010)
• Prior to 1996, practitioners were represented as ‘a parade of
hacks, flacks and charlatans’ (Brody, 1992, cited Ames,
2010, p. 163)
• Practitioners in popular culture are no longer ‘bitter ex-
journalists or isolated, anti-social novelists who have gone
into PR for the money’ (Ames, 2010, p. 169)
• Increasingly, popular culture portrays public relations as
complex, challenging work where processes include media

relations and strategic planning
• ‘Diversity is not mentioned in the analysis above, because
there is none. In these films, PR is done solely by
Caucasians. As previously, most practitioners are men.’
(Ames. 2010, p. 169)
Representations of female PR
practitioners in film and TV
• Johnston (2010) found that women in PR work
tend to be depicted in film and TV in junior or
technical/supporting roles; they tend to be
white, single and middle class.
• Where the industry is depicted as manipulative
and unethical, the men tend to be senior;
women tend to perform the event management,
publicity, promotional and technical tasks
• ‘a party ghetto where the velvet has simply
been replaced by a pair of stilettos’ (p. 14)
Postfeminist Gothic/Vampire PR
• Through its ambivalence, contradictions,
humour and irony, a postfeminist approach
critiques binary and essentialist thinking and
offers critical insights.
• Vampires are ‘personifications of their age’ and
‘hideous invaders of the normal’ (Auerbach,

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