A comparative analysis of the perception of public relations in Chinese and South Korean newspapers

Please cite this article in press as: Jo, S., & Yoo, J.-W. A comparative analysis of the perception of public relations in Chinese

and South Korean newspapers. Public Relations Review (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.01.010

ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model

PUBREL-1242; No. of Pages3

Public Relations Review xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

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Public Relations Review

Research in Brief

A comparative analysis of the perception of public relations

in Chinese and South Korean newspapers,

Samsup Joa,∗, Jae-Woong Yoo b

a Department of Public Relations & Advertising, Sookmyung Women’s University, 100 Cheongpa-ro 47-Gil, Yongsang-Gu, Seoul 140-742,

South Korea b Department of Public Relations and Design, Eulji University, 553 Sanseong-Daero, Sujeong-Gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-Do 461-632,

South Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 26 August 2013

Received in revised form 17 January 2014

Accepted 29 January 2014

Keywords:

Xuan Chuan

Hong-Bo

Chinese newspaper

Korean newspaper

Public relations terms

a b s t r a c t

The study analyzes the major newspapers of China and South Korea to explore how the

journalists perceive public relations term which is equivalent to Xuan Chuan in China and

Hong-Bo in South Korea. Chinese news considered the primary function of Xuan Chuan to

be persuasion, whereas Korean news considered the primary functions of Hong-Bo to be

public information and image (reputation) management. Xuan Chuan was more likely to be

associated with the government and persuasion, whereas Hong Bo was closely associated

with for-profit organizations and image management.

© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The perception of public relations in the media has endured as a topic of study (Pincus, Rimmer, Rayfield, & Cropp, 1993;

Scrimger & Richards, 2003; Sterne, 2010). Despite the expansion and classification of the targets and boundaries of public

relations research, most studies have focused on Western nations, including the United States. However, applying research

that targets Western populations to the nations of the East is difficult because socio-cultural environments are distinct.

Though China and South Korea are geographically adjacent to each other and have long shared not only Confucian

customs and traditions but also linguistic features, the two nations now have different political and socio-cultural systems.

In spite of new definition of public relations unveiled by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA, 2012), there still

exists a substantial perceptual gap between the academic definition and actual practice. This nature of perceptual gap needs

to be examined across different cultures as well. This study contributes to public relations knowledge by examining how

traditional perceptions have evolved and by identifying where the practice and perception of public relations diverges from

normative academic definitions.

The complete study can be requested from the author.

The research was supported by the Sookmyung Women’s University Research Grants 2012.

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 710 9377; fax: +82 2 2077 7943.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (S. Jo), [email protected] (J.-W. Yoo).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.01.010

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