Impact of New Media on Public Relations - Report Example

Introduction Public relation is an increasingly valuable concept in business world these days. A public relation is the way in which an organization or business communicate with media or public. The main purpose of public relation is to create a positive image of business or organization in the eye of the public. Example of these can be press meet, newsletters, public appearances and so on. Today, the world is highly competitive and public relation is a way to distinguish one from competitors. Hence public relation is a crucial part of business, the study in public relation gives many opportunities for people. Public relation scholarship is an aim of every student to intent to grow. Basically public relation scholarship gives importance to socio cultural factors in the process. Now the business world is all about globalization and trading across barriers among nations makes it a global activity. The businesses have to deal with variety of public and cultural diversity is an important factor to be considered. Public relation has got much to do with socio and cultural factors. As matter of sociological factors like hunger issues, poverty, pollution, population and terrorism is part of intercultural communication organization or business has to confront. Here, public relation as a communication process needs to focus on way to address social and cultural issues. “The ultimate aim of any public relations activities/programmers is for mutual understanding of the organizations policies, programmers and activities .”1So public relation scholarship. 1.Nwabueze, Chinenye. "Cross-Cultural Research Relevance in Public Relations: An." Journal of Business and Management 3, no. 6 (2012): 14-18. What is Public Relation? Public relation is a n important part of today‘s world as communication is a key to any business or organization. The basic concept of public relation means to maintain the right image of a company, organization or individual in the eye of the public. These public can be anybody and it greatly depends on the nature of business, or individual. They can be client, community, voters, fans or students. “Public relations practitioners will be responsible for either coordinating production, or actually producing this material, and the budgets and skills bases of public relations units may need to be reviewed to accommodate these new demands.” 2Public relation officer needs to create a good understanding with media and public. Releasing press releases, attending conferences, relapsing news letters are all part of public relation. Today public relations officials have much more activity to perform rather than office work or releasing press materials. The parameters of public relation are changing with time. Combating bad media and press is one of the difficult tasks of public relation. Sometimes pubic relation officials need to brain wash people to create a good image of themselves in the public and media. “Recently, the role of organizational public relations has expanded as evidenced in the blurring of the once precise boundaries between public relations, advertising, and marketing communication activities.” 3 As a scope filled profession public relation is a highly demanding profession and so is its scholarship. So the public relation academics need to explore more on global activity and the value of socio cultural factors in it 2.James, Melanie. "A review of the impact of new media on public relations: Challenges for terrain practice and Education." Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal 8 (2008): 137-49 3.Prindle, Ron. "A Public Relations Role in Brand Messaging." International Journal of Business and Social Science 2, no. 18 (2011): 32-37. Relation of socio – culture with public relation Socio – cultural factor are a significant part of public and as a result it affects public relation. Social and cultural factors are the elements which are related to the interaction of people and as a public relation officer one has to deal with these issues. Public is constituted of different social classes and communicating with public is dealing with different culture and sociological factors. Public relation has to focus on international boundaries to understand people and relationships. Intercultural communication is an activity which needs lot of interacting knowledge. The socio – cultural forces have a large influence on public relation. The practice of public relation anywhere can be influenced and constraint by a large social and cultural forces Some countries are racist, while others are politically unstable and other may be religious so all these matters need to be kept in mind by the public relation officer. Any social issue which is vulnerable can create problem in public relation. In America and other European countries communication is explicit while it is not in other nations. Apart from this language is another social factor to be considered on cross border public relation. Many cultural issues can come as an obstacle in public relation process. “The role of public relations considered credible in societal well-being contrast to the adverting. Hence, it can be argued that the credibility of public relations enhanced because of techniques and functions that contribute to the society as a whole.”4 4.Shah, Mudassar H. "Advertising Wounds, Public Relations Cure: Corporate Social Responsibility." International Journal of Business and Social Science 1, no. 2 (2010): 137-52. Socio cultural and public relation scholarship Public relation as a profession and discipline is less studied by communication scholars. Public relation as a communication process is influenced by socio cultural factors. Public relation is a practice which needs to attend specific demands of a community or a society. So it is mandatory for the public relation scholars to get more diverse and put more attention on social and cultural factors to make the process potent. Public relation as an educational discipline should put more focus on global matters and need to incorporate the global demands while practicing public relation scholarship. “US PR models have generally dictated western PR practice, but international PR presents issues related to cultural, social and economic factors that must be considered .” 5The Scholars generally overlook the role of socio – cultural factors in public relation affairs. The children need to be educated more on cultural environment and what influence it has on public relation. “There is a need, for a healthy blend of both local example and global ones to help students be better educated to their global challenges.” 6The public relation student need to be educated more on the influence of global aspects of different social classes, races, cultures and other issue like pollution, poverty and terrorism . This will enable the public relation student to confront their job more professionally. Public relation in real sense is a social constructing communication process in symbolic and material way. Different political, social, cultural and economical factors are an important part of public relation as it connects mainly with society and is a representative of organization. 5. Diaz, Veronica. "PR practitioners in international assignments." CCIJ 14, no. 1 (2008): 81-101. 6. Sriramesh, Krishnamuthy. "Globalisation and public relations: An overview looking into the future." Prism 6, no. 2 (2009): 1-11. “With its emphasis on language that is indeterminate, postmodernism has the promise to add to public relations new dimensions that recognize relationships, cultural identity and voices .”7 It has been a system in public relation that emphasis is given on organization as actors rather than people and culture It is important for the academic and research team to explore the value of social – cultural forces in public relation. The public relation scholars should understand that public relation must be a way to achieve global unity where people, organization and groups have a desirable role to play. Public relation should be constructive mean where in the society and organization through shared meanings. Such a scholarship will be connected and would have focus on interaction between different structures of public relation and its environment. Public relation is an organizational function which has more of external function. It has two way communication relationships where in it builds positive relationship between organizations and public. Assumption five underpins research that draws on theories of political economy, mean­ing-making, culture and identity to illustrate how PR is fundamentally embedded in the social and organizational cultures in which practitioners work. The public relation scholars need to look at the status of profession in the society. Public relation has a huge role to play the way in which a society functions. 7.Pal, Mahuya, Dutta, Mohan."Public Relations in a Global Context: The Relevance of Critical Modernism as aTheoterical Lens." Journal of Public Relation Research 20, no. 2 (2008): 159-79. The public relation can bring fundamental role in bringing about change in the society. In the profession of public relation the social actors also has a prominent role to play such as profession and professionals. The cultural meaning is sustained and circulated in the society with five moments as production, regulation, consumption, representation and identity. The interaction of these moments changes the identity of each moment. The culture must be articulate in the right manner to understand public relation practices in accordance with socio – cultural framework. In real sense, public relation is a cultural intermediary profession. “Because public relations are concerned with the communication between an organization and its publics, the communication perspective on cultural identity would appear to be the more appropriate one in which to ground this study.” 8Public relation has the capacity to promote various information, fashion sense and cultural sense to public. However less is identified as to this radical role of public relation. “Recent attempts to extend international public relations scholarship emerged from a need to understand the practice in a more globalised context.”9It would beneficial if the public relation practice and scholarship is given a holistic and multi – cultural body of knowledge of PR that indicate a socio, political, economical and cultural differences. Public relation scholarship needs to put forward research question about both the connection of socio – cultural and radical socio – cultural approach with public relation. Public relation scholarship should pose question how public relation work produce social identities and sustain social practices in society that they it change the way we perceive ourselves and the groups we belong to . Public relation is not restricted to an organization but is a social and cultural process. 8. Erlbaum, Lawrence. "Cultural Identity in the Segmentationof Publics: An Emerging Theory." Journal of Public Relation Research 18, no. 1 (2006): 45-65. 9.Edwards, Lee. "Defining the object of public relations research: A new starting point." Public Relation Enquiry 1, no. 7 (2011): 7-30. Public relation is a discipline which is less explored and understood. Since its origin, public relation was driven by organizational interest primarily. However, the public relation scholars need to understand that the scope of the profession cannot be analyzed what the practice consist in broad terms. In real sense, public relation itself is a social and cultural practice, a profession which has a magnitude to shape the value, beliefs attitudes and interest of an organization. The public relation officers does not understand that it public relation has a distinctive role in shaping up a society. The normative view of the public relation needs to be questioned. “Earlier attempts at diversity studies in public relations tended to focus on gender and racial issues and the impact of societal culture on public relations excellence.”10 Public relation is a way through which truth is communicated to the society and as it is circulated it produces social cohesion. Socio – cultural factors give knowledge as to the way in which different cultural norms and values that position groups and individuals separately in society. To understand public relation better the profession must be interrogated as a social group, as a social function which sustains a particular set of cultural structures and norms. The public relation practitioners are cultural agents and interact with certain cultural environments. The diversity in public relation is possible if the social structures and cultural identities are reflected in the practice of the profession. So it is true that f socio- cultural do turn in public relation scholarship. 10.Sison, Marianne D. "Whose cultural values? Exploring public relations’ approaches to understanding audiences." Prism 6, no. 2 (2009): 1-13. Bibliography Diaz, Veronica. "PR practitioners in international assignments." CCIJ 14, no. 1 (2008): 81-101. Erlbaum, Lawrence. "Cultural Identity in the Segmentationof Publics: An Emerging Theory." Journal of Public Relation Research 18, no. 1 (2006): 45-65. Edwards, Lee. "Defining the object of public relations research: A new starting point." Public Relation Enquiry 1, no. 7 (2011): 7-30. James, Melanie. "A review of the impact of new media on public relations: Challenges for terrain practice and Education." Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal 8 (2008): 137-49 Nwabueze, Chinenye. "Cross-Cultural Research Relevance in Public Relations: An." Journal of Business and Management 3, no. 6 (2012): 14-18. Prindle, Ron. "A Public Relations Role in Brand Messaging." International Journal of Business and Social Science 2, no. 18 (2011): 32-37. Pal, Mahuya. Dutta, Mohan."Public Relations in a Global Context: The Relevance of Critical Modernism as aTheoterical Lens." Journal of Public Relation Research 20, no. 2 (2008): 159-79. Shah, Mudassar H. "Advertising Wounds, Public Relations Cure: Corporate Social Responsibility." International Journal of Business and Social Science 1, no. 2 (2010): 137-52. Sriramesh, Krishnamuthy. "Globalisation and public relations: An overview looking into the future." Prism 6, no. 2 (2009): 1-11. Sison, Marianne D. "Whose cultural values? Exploring public relations’ approaches to understanding audiences." Prism 6, no. 2 (2009): 1-13. Read More