The Global Public Relations Handbook

EDITED BY

KRISHNAMURTHY SRIRAMESH

DEJAN VERCIC

Theory, Research, and Practice

THE

GLOBAL

PUBLIC RELATIONS

HANDBOOK

THE

GLOBAL

PUBLIC RELATIONS

HANDBOOK

The Global Public Relations Handbook

LEA’s Communication Series

Jennings Bryant / Dolf Zillmann, General Editors

Selected titles in Public Relations (James Grunig, Advisory Editor) include:

Austin/Pinkleton
Strategic Public Relations Management: Planning and Managing

Effective Communication Programs

Culbertson/Chen
International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis

Dozier/Grunig/Grunig
Manager’s Guide to Excellence in Public Relations and

Communication Management

Fearn/Banks
Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach, Second Edition

Grunig
Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management

Grunig/Grunig/Dozier
Excellent Public Relations and Effective Organizations:

A Study of Communication Management in Three Countries

Ledingham/Bruning
Public Relations as Relationship Management: A Relational

Approach to the Study and Practice of Public Relations

Lerbinger
The Crisis Manager: Facing Risk and Responsibility

Spicer
Organizational Public Relations: A Political Perspective

For a complete list of other titles in LEA’s Communication Series, please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

Publishers at www.erlbaum.com

The Global Public Relations Handbook

Theory, Research, and Practice

Edited by

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dejan Verci

ˇ cˇ Pristop Communications, Ljubljana, Slovenia

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS

2003 Mahwah, New Jersey London

Senior Editor: Linda Bathgate

Editorial Assistant: Karin Wittig-Bates

Cover Design: Sean Trane Sciarrone

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Full-Service Compositor: TechBooks

This book was typeset in 10.5/12 pt. Times, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.

The heads were typeset in Engravers Gothic, Zapf Humanist and Revival.

Copyright
C 2003 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in

any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any

other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers

10 Industrial Avenue

Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The global public relations handbooks : theory, research, and practice / edited by

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, Dejan Verˇciˇc.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-8058-3922-4 (cloth)—ISBN 0-8058-3923-2 (pbk)

1. Public relations—Cross-cultural studies—Handbooks, manuals, etc.

2. Intercultural communication—Handbooks, manuals, etc.

I. Sriramesh, Krishnamurthy. II. Verˇciˇc, Dejan.

HM1221.G57 2003

659.2—dc21

2003048349

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on

acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and

durability.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Lovingly dedicated to the memory of

Sriramesh’s father

Sri K. N. Krishna Murthy

Contents

Contributor Biographies xi

Foreword xxi

Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO

Preface xxiii

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

Introduction xxv

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

1 A Theoretical Framework for Global Public

Relations Research and Practice 1

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Verci

ˇ cˇ

I Asia and Australasia

2 Public Relations in Mainland China: An Adolescent

With Growing Pains 23

Ni Chen and Hugh M. Culbertson

3 Sharing the Transformation: Public Relations

and the UAE Come of Age 46

Badran A. Badran, Judy VanSlyke Turk,

and Timothy N. Walters

4 An Overview of Public Relations in Japan and the

Self-Correction Concept 68

Takashi Inoue

vii

viii CONTENTS

5 Becoming Professionals: A Portrait of Public

Relations in Singapore 86

Constance Chay-Nemeth ´

6 Professionalism and Diversification: The Evolution

of Public Relations in South Korea 106

Yungwook Kim

7 Public Relations in Australasia: Friendly Rivalry,

Cultural Diversity, and Global Focus 121

Judy Motion, Shirley Leitch, and Simon Cliffe

II Africa

8 Public Relations in South Africa: From Rhetoric

to Reality 145

Ronel Rensburg ´

9 Public Relations in Egypt: Practices, Obstacles, and

Potentials 179

Kevin L. Keenan

III Europe

10 From Literary Bureaus to a Modern Profession:

The Development and Current Structure of

Public Relations in Germany 199

Gunter Bentele and Stefan Wehmeier ¨

11 Public Relations in the Polder:

The Case of the Netherlands 222

Betteke van Ruler

12 Public Relations in Sweden: A Strong Presence

Increasing in Importance 244

Bertil Flodin

13 Public Relations in an Economy and Society

in Transition: The Case of Poland 257

Ryszard l
awniczak, Waldemar Rydzak, and Jacek Tr˛ebecki

14 Public Relations in a Corporativist Country:

The Case of Slovenia 281

Dejan Verci

ˇ cˇ

15 The Development of Public Relations in Russia:

A Geopolitical Approach 301

Katerina Tsetsura

CONTENTS ix

IV The Americas

16 Public Relations in the United States:

A Generation of Maturation 323

Larissa A. Grunig and James E. Grunig

17 Public Relations in Brazil: Practice and Education

in a South American Context 356

Juan-Carlos Molleda, Andreia Athaydes, and Vivian Hirsch ´

18 Public Relations in Chile: Searching for Identity Amid

Imported Models 378

Maria Aparecida Ferrari

V International Public Relations: Key Dimensions

and Actors

19 Transnational Public Relations by Foreign Governments 399

Michael Kunczik

20 Public Information in the UNESCO: Toward a

Strategic Role 425

Vincent Defourny

21 Managing Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa:

A Communication Ethic for the Global Corporation 441

Cornelius B. Pratt

22 Serving Public Relations Globally:

The Agency Perspective 459

Amy Rudgard

23 Public Relations of Movers and Shakers:

Transnational Corporations 478

Dejan Verci

ˇ cˇ

24 Nongovernmental Organizations and International

Public Relations 490

Ana Tkalac and Jurica Pavicic

Epilogue

25 The Missing Link: Multiculturalism and Public

Relations Education 505

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh

Author Index 523

Subject Index 533

Contributor Biographies

Andr´eia Athaydes earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Federal University

of Rio Grande do Sul, Puerto Alegre. She graduated as a communication and political econ￾omy specialist from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Puerto Alegre,

and has a master’s degree in management and strategic marketing from the University of

Business and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Between 1998

and 2001, Andr´eia Athaydes acted as general secretary and president of the Regional

Council of Public Relations Professionals of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Cur￾rently, she coordinates the Commission of Integration with Latin Am´erica of the Federal

Council of Public Relations Professionals. She is also director of the Lutheran University

of Brazil’s Social Communication Program. Among her teaching areas are communication

ethics and legal issues, communication strategies and tactics, projects’ development, and

news media planning and production. From 2000 to 2002, Athaydes participated of the

Ministry of Education’s Commission of Teaching Specialists of Social Communication,

evaluating public relations programs in various states of Brazil. As a professional, she

worked for education and health institutions.

Badran A. Badran is a training director at the Center for Media Training and Research and

an associate professor with the College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed

University, Dubai, UAE. He served as acting director of the Department of Public and

Cultural Relations at Zayed University. He holds a PhD in communication studies from

the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a MA in journalism from Indiana University,

Bloomington, Indiana, and an International Certificate in Travel and Tourism from Oxford

University, Oxford, England. He has published papers and book chapters in public rela￾tions, tourism promotion and publicity, population communication, and communication

and media in the Middle East.

G ¨unter Bentele is a full professor at the University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. In

1994, he was invited to serve as the chair for public relations at the University of Leipzig,

a first for any German-speaking country. Prior to joining the university, he was asso￾ciate professor for Communication Science and Journalism (between 1989 and 1994)

xi

xii CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES

at the University of Bamberg. After his State’s Examination in German Literature and

Linguistics (1974), he became assistant professor at the Free University (1974–1989).

In 1982, he wrote his dissertation about an evolutionary theory of signs; in 1989, he

wrote a second dissertation (for the German Habilitation) discussing the problems of

journalistic objectivity and media credibility. He has served as a guest professor in

Lugano and Zurich (Switzerland), Jyvaeskylae (Finland), Riga (Latvia), and Klagenfurt

(Austria) and was a visiting research scholar at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Between

1995 and 1998, he served as president of the German Association for Communication and

Media Studies. He authored and coauthored nine books; edited or coedited 20 more; and

wrote over 130 articles in the fields of public relations, communication theory, journalism,

media system analyses, media semiotics and film studies, communication ethics, and other

fields.

Constance Chay-N´emeth is an assistant professor at the School of Communication and

Information, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her areas of specializa￾tion include public relations, issues and crisis management, health communication, and

critical and postmodern studies. She is currently interested in studying the effects of the

knowledge economy on public relations and knowledge management. Among other pro￾fessional duties such as reviewing articles for the Journal of Public Relations Research,

Constance has also worked with public relations consultancies in the United States and

Singapore.

Ni Chen is an assistant professor of communication at the Hong Kong Baptist University

(HKBU), Hongkong. Before joining the faculty at HKBU, she worked as an assistant

professor at universities in the United States. She earned her PhD in mass communication–

journalism at Ohio University, Athens, OH in 1992. She is the author and coauthor of

refered journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. She is the coeditor of a book

entitled International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis. She is a board member

of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Hong Kong Chapter.

She advised Public Relations Student Society of American chapters at two universities in

the United States and is now the faculty advisor to the student chapter of IABC at HKBU.

In addition, she is a member of the Editorial Board for American Review of China Studies.

She keeps close contacts with colleagues at universities in Mainland China, serving as

their life-long distinguished guest lecturer.

Simon Cliffe is currently working in Melbourne, Australia, as a market research consultant

with Roberts Research Group, focusing on customer satisfaction within service industries.

Previously he worked on projects including public transport brand strategy development.

He completed a master of commerce (hons) in marketing at the University of Auckland,

Auckland, New Zealand, where he focused in 2001 on the adoption of a sponsorship￾based branding strategy for the marketing of services. His academic interests include

public relations, brand strategy, services marketing, and stakeholder management.

Hugh M. Culbertson is professor emeritus in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism,

Ohio University, Athens, OH. He coauthored a widely used text, Fundamentals of News

Reporting, in addition to Research Methods in Mass Communication and Mass Commu￾nication Theory and Research. He is senior author of Studying the Political, Social and

Economic Contexts of Public Relations: A Book of Theory and Cases and is senior coeditor

of International Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis. Culbertson has authored or

CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES xiii

coauthored more than 55 articles in refereed journals, along with 10 published monographs

and book chapters dealing with varied topics in public relations and mass communication.

In 1990, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) named him Educator of the

Year. In 1985, he received the Pathfinder Award for excellence in research from the PRSA

Research and Education Foundation. In 1976, Hugh Culbertson was named Outstanding

Graduate Faculty member at Ohio University, Athens, OH. He directed the “Foundations”

section of the PRSA Body of Knowledge project in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Also,

he has served on the advisory boards of the Journal of Public Research Research (formerly

the Public Relations Research Annual), Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly,

Newspaper Research Journal, and Public Relations Review.

Vincent Defourny is UNESCO’s web chief editor. He joined UNESCO Paris headquar￾ters in 1997. For 5 years, he worked as program and project evaluation specialist trying

to use evaluation as an organizational learning tool. After being closely involved in the

elaboration of a new communication strategy for UNESCO in February 2002, he was

designated to create and lead a new web editorial coordination unit. Defourny holds a PhD

in communication studies from the Catholic University of Louvain, Leuven, Belgium,

where he served in the 1980s as assistant lecturer and in the 1990s as visiting profes￾sor. He presented papers at conferences and lectured at various European universities.

Along with his academic activities, he has worked in France, Belgium, and Spain as a

consultant for private companies as well as for public and nonprofit organizations. He has

managed a series of projects in the field of corporate communication, human resources

training, quality deployment, and change management. From 1981 to 1984, he volun￾teered in Uganda where he worked in the field in educational and on community-based

development projects. Defourny published his doctorate thesis on strategic management

of communication and wrote articles on other public relations issues. He is also coauthor

of two books on quality management.

Maria Aparecida Ferrari, is the director of the School of Journalism and Public Relations

at the Methodist University of S˜ao Paulo, Brazil. She is also an associate professor at the

Department of public relations at the University of S˜ao Paulo. From 1982 to 1995, she

worked as a public relations practitioner and consultant with national and multinational

companies in Brasil and Chile. She received a PhD in public relations from the University

of S˜ao Paulo (2000) and a MCS in public relations from the University of S˜ao Paulo

(1993).

Bertil Flodin has close to 40 years of experience in public relations. This includes practical

experience as public relations executive for corporations, nongovernmental organizations,

and governmental offices. He spent 12 years as an associate professor and an associate

dean at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of

Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Bertil Flodin is the proud recipient of the Gothenburg

University Pedagogic Prize, which he received in 1995 for his excellence in teaching. For

the past 5 years, he has worked as a full-time public relations consultant. His assignments

have involved strategic communications counsel in crisis communication, public affairs,

business intelligence and knowledge management, internal communication, civic infor￾mation, and the education of professional communicators. Bertil Flodin was involved in

the creation of crisis communications plans for companies, wrote a handbook on crisis

communications for public authorities, and published a number of research reports on

public relations and crisis communication.

xiv CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES

Larissa A. Grunig is professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she

has worked since 1978. She teaches public relations and communication research. She

has received the Pathfinder Award for excellence in research, sponsored by the Institute

for Public Relations; the Jackson, Jackson, and Wagner Behavioral Science Prize; and

the Outstanding Educator Award of the Public Relations Society of America. She was

co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Public Relations Research and has written

more than 200 articles, book chapters, monographs, reviews, and conference papers on

public relations, activism, science writing, feminist theory, communication theory, and

research. She was a member of an international grant team, sponsored by the IABC

Research Foundation, investigating excellence in public relations and communication

management. The newest Excellence book won the 2002 PRIDE award sponsored by the

Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association. Dr. Grunig also

serves as a consultant in public relations.

James E. Grunig is a professor of public relations in the Department of Communication at

the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the coauthor of Excellent Public Relations

and Effective Organizations: A Study of Communication Management in Three Countries,

Managing Public Relations, Public Relations Techniques, and Manager’s Guide to Excel￾lence in Public Relations and Communication Management. He is editor of Excellence

in Public Relations and Communication Management. He has published over 215 arti￾cles, books, chapters, papers, and reports. He won three major awards in public relations:

the Pathfinder Award for excellence in public relations research from the Institute for

Public Relations Research and Education, the Outstanding Educator Award of the Public

Relations Society of America (PRSA), and the Jackson, Jackson and Wagner Award for

behavioral science research of the PRSA Foundation. He also won the most prestigious

lifetime award of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication,

the Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research.

Vivian Hirsch is Brazilian chief executive officer and vice-president for Latin America of

Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. Hirsch is specialist in strategic planning and crisis

management. She has 20 years of experience as director of public relations for government

agencies and corporations, such as Monsanto and American Express. Since 1994, she has

directed public relations agencies. Vivian Hirsch is fluent in Spanish, English, German,

and French.

Takashi Inoue is chief executive officer of Inoue Public Relations. He graduated from

Waseda University, Tokyo in 1968, majoring in marketing and administration. After a

stint in marketing at Yamaha Corporation (formerly Nippon Gakki Company, Ltd.), he

founded Inoue Public Relations in 1970. Takashi Inoue was the first public relations pro￾fessional to be actively involved in the high-technology industry, beginning with Intel and

Apple Computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which coincided with the beginning

stages of a keyboard-based culture in Japan. He is one of only a few Japanese public

relations consultants to have achieved an international reputation as a spokesperson for

Japan, a reputation built up over 31 years as Inoue Public Relations has worked with

an extensive range of industries, including telecommunications, computers, financial, au￾tomotive, pharmaceutical, aerospace, and business-to-business and government relations.

Over the past 2 decades, he has been especially active and involved in United States–Japan

trade-related issues, helping to avert possible crisis situations in the telecommunications,

semiconductor, and automotive industries. In 1997, his company won the International