PRO285 Public Relations in Society 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). • Int.

1. PRO285
Public Relations in Society
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

2. 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

3. • 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Publishing. Accessed from
issuu.com/bloomsburypublishing/docs/brand_vandals_online_sa
mpler
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]?

8. • ‘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

9. • 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.
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

10. 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).

11. • 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

12. 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.

13. 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)

14. “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

15. 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.

16. 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).

17. 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

18. • 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
PRO285
Public Relations in Society
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)

19. • 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

20. ‘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.

21. 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

22. 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.
Popular Culture
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. offers critical insights.
• Vampires are ‘personifications of their age’ and
‘hideous invaders of the normal’ (Auerbach,
1995, pp. 3, 6).
• Postfeminist Gothic is a site for the construction
of (contentious) meaning, characterised by
plurality, ambiguity and contradictions and
works against any notion of stable identity or
meaning (Brabon & Genz, 2007).
True Blood (HBO, 2008-2014)
• The public relations
practitioner: ‘You are nothing
like you are on TV.’
• The public relations campaign:
‘We’re citizens, we pay taxes,
we deserve basic equal rights.’
• The audience: ‘Popcorn
television for smart people.’
2008, 1.1, ‘Strange love’
True Blood (HBO, 2008- )
• The public relations

27. practitioner: ‘You are nothing
like you are on TV.’
• The public relations campaign:
‘We’re citizens, we pay taxes,
we deserve basic equal rights.’
• The audience: ‘Popcorn
television for smart people.’
2011, 4.1, ‘She’s not there’
True Blood (HBO, 2008- )
• The public relations
practitioner: ‘You are nothing
like you are on TV.’
• The public relations campaign:
‘We’re citizens, we pay taxes,
we deserve basic equal rights.’
• The audience: ‘Popcorn
television for smart people.’
True Blood & representation of
PR
• PR is represented in complex, playful and contradictory
ways, which both conform to and critique stereotypes and

28. expectations.
• PR is revealed as a dark force used to disguise real power,
where the American Vampire League is the front for a
shadowy, vampire Authority.
• A postfeminist Gothic reading of True Blood offers multiple
readings and discourses of PR from social justice to
corporate greed.
• If every age gets the vampire it deserves (Auerbach, 1995),
Nan Flanagan is the PR practitioner for a postfeminist,
media-literate world.
• Popular culture offers a creative, critical and transformative
space for exploring transgression and resistance and
therefore an important space for exploring power and the
role of public relations in contemporary culture.
Further reading
• Fitch, K. (2015). Promoting the Vampire Rights
Amendment: Public relations, postfeminism and
True Blood. Public Relations Review [Special
Issue: Representing PR], 41(5), 607–614.
PRO285
Public Relations in Society
International and intercultural public relations
Topic 11

29. 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,

30. 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).

31. • 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

32. (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

33. 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
Definition Australia
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

34. their immediate families.
In the business world, employees
are expected to be self-reliant
and display initiative.
MAS- Masculinity
Definition Australia
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”.

35. 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
Definition Australia
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.

36. 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
Definition Australia
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.

37. 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

38. • 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?
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

39. 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.

40. 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).

41. • 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 &

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. • 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?

45. PRO285
Public Relations in Society
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

46. 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)

47. 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

48. 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…

49. 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

50. 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

51. 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

52. 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

53. 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,

54. 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).

55. 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.
Competing stories about
Disney
(Boje, 1995).
Stories from several long-term employees dispute

56. 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.
Competing stories about
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).
Globalisation
Dr Kate Fitch

57. 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

58. 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.)

59. • 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

60. 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)

61. ‘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.’

62. 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.

63. 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-

64. 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.
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

65. • 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

66. 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

67. 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,

68. 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

69. • 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.

70. • 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/
Indigenous
Perspectives

71. 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-

72. 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?

73. • 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

74. 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
Public Relations in Society
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

75. 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).

76. 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)

77. • “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,

78. 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.