The Essential Role of Culture in Public Relations

Choose one country and discuss how that country’s culture (including its history) has impacted on the practice of public relations and communication within it.

According to critics, culture is the quintessential element of public relations practice at the crux of which lie the essential components of culture like civilization and society (Austin &Pinkleton, 2015). As it is, culture is a group of elements shared by a set of people belonging to particular strata of society. Culture is comprised of individuals’ ideas, behavioral patterns, attached values, morals and customs tied intrinsically to the emotional and intellectual knots of an individual. Culture is always in a state of flux as it is continuously affected and re-shaped by globalization and its technological and financial aspects. As a result of globalization, culture of one country is transient, continuously evolving in order to accumulate new elements. As history indicates, Africa has played host to 50 nations and consequently 1,000 languages and sheltered a vast array of culture (Crane, Kawashima & Kawasaki, 2017). The same is applicable for United States which has witnessed ever-emerging patterns of culture due to the arrival and departure of immigrants that had sparked a social and cultural change over the years. The mainstream culture is an amalgamation of the newly witnessed set of cultural norms and behaviors. Culture is responsible to construct and re-construct an individual’s verbal and non-verbal set of communication, individualism and a person’s collective experiences. PR which is a direct result of globalization has been responsible for bringing the different sets of culture and its closer and has given birth to intercultural communication. Lack of communication between two different countries can be a direct result of cultural barriers, however, apart from the usage of technology and resources, a company should imbibe within itself the nuances and norms of culture associated with different countries (Apple, 2017). It will eradicate the possibilities of miscommunication and increase its share of profit. Similarly in case of PR, the managers of globalized companies should cope up with the cultural differences of another country in order to increase participation in PR.  The individual differences should be merged and evolve into to accumulate cultural differences of a set of countries to impart an innovative edge to business. Afterall, culture can alter our ways of perceiving the actions of the other and help an individual to sense the world differently. Public relations is essentially embedded within the cultural context from where the practitioner is working (Stroope, 2011). In Latin America, PR is governed by their set of cultural beliefs and dynamics. Today, it is widely argued that the origins of public relations is in U.S. and is essentially an American phenomenon.

Cultural Variability and Intercultural Communication in Global PR Industry

In a nutshell, public relation is widely dependent on communication which is again influenced by cultural variability and the same should be put to use into the interpersonal relationships and communication. For the lack of an universally defined sense of the world culture, the organizational culture of several American organization are comprised of dominant culture and subcultures or countercultures (ArmentroutBrazee& Mattson, 2017). The latter is nothing but a reconstructed version of the dominant culture which needs to be embraced within the organizational culture.

Studies have shown that during the early 1980s and 1990s, theorists have proved culture as a fundamental influencing factor of public relations. Previously scholars assumed that an individual was allowed to make decisions or organizational changes without paying any consideration to his/her culture which is accentuated further with the usage of web-conferencing, cellular phones and video sharing on online portals (Kangas et al., 2017). The globalized firms can reduce the marks left by the set of dominant culture by adopting universal codes of conduct. However, there are a number of firms that are comparatively not well-equipped with globalization and practices. As a result, they are pressurized to respond to the needs of their own communities in order to expand their business.  PR in U.S is massively influenced by cultural nuances as public relations is a global practice which requires to accommodate the larger picture within the periphery, intercultural communication is an essential aspect of globalization. In public relations, a practitioner plays the role of an intermediary between nations, conveying the cultural attributes of his country which resonates with the wider population of his homeland (Franklin & Parton, 2014). U.S is a progressive globalized country which has spread its dominance through entertainment and media industry which has a wide consumer base perpetuating a cultural change in many countries. The marketing sector of U.S which forms a vital part of globalization has over 300 million consumers which has helped U.S to expand its economy slowly over time (Berg, 1990). As a result of its market size, U.S’s presence in the wider context is undeniable. The access to different cultures and integration of same in the mainstream culture is not one way. Hollywood has ingratiated within itself a vast number of culture with its idiosyncrasies and nuances as one can deduce that Hollywood is acceptable to foreign talents. The film making and entertainment industry of U.S is not American quintessentially (Protess& McCombs, 2016). It has incorporated many foreign elements within itself. Hollywood generates more revenue in U.S and has become an important commodity among the rest of U.S exports. In U.S public relations was essentially ruled by its homogenous set of culture which set the parameters for communication, both spoken and non-verbal gestures. U.S’s culture and perceptions governed how messages were interpreted, consumer behavior. The same has helped U.S to establish mutually beneficial relationship with other countries (Tsetsura,  Bentley & Newcomb, 2015).

US Culture’s Dominance in Public Relations and its Global Influence

Within the framework of public relations, culture influences  communication. Apart from culture, the other factors in U.S which have a major influence in its PR are political, historical and legal framework. U.S’s culture is integrated within the cultural patterns of a number of countries, known by the term of Universalism which masks the differences in culture shared between a given numbers of countries. U.S through public relations has maintained brand management, media relations and effective business communications. Poor understanding of culture can lead to a massive failure in public relations and subsequently a downfall in business and economy. Public relations and its functioning across the globe is affected by culture and communication infrastructure (Tsetsura, Bentley & Newcomb, 2015). Both inter-cultural communication and public relation are parallel to each other; the theory is more relevant in the developing nations where public relation is more about establishing communication than management functions.

In film and entertainment PR characters hardly shared substantial screen time when compared to other notable professions like doctors, lawyers and the like. The depiction of PR characters on silver screen took place around the year 1930 which however, like celluloid does with most of the characters, portrayed a typical picture of PR characters. As a result, these films generated misconceptions about public relations among the common mass. Therefore, people at large came to regard the profession of a PR as derogative and tainted with immoral. The characters were recurrently played by female actors which increased from 25 percent to 50 percent during the 1990’s (Lambert, 2011). Their roles were narrowed down to play love interests to men, a desirable and beautiful young lady, the depictions verging on commodification. If one has to comment on the manner the profession was portrayed to the audience, he/she has to agree on certain possibilities and facts. Immense amount of emphasis was given on the physical appearance of the women which made the profession of PR look shallow and vague. Analysis of the films like Dead Heat, and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, will give a fair amount of idea on Hollywood’s attribution of different traits to profession of PR practitioner. Miller had identifies a number of terms to associate with PR as portrayed in U.S film industry, such as ditzy, obsequious and manipulative. The practitioners were grossly shown as morally unscrupulous, feather brained characters with megalomaniac tendencies. Mars Attacks is a famous American film, where the PR practitioner is invested with fatalistic powers ultimately brining doom and disarray into the world(Ames, 2010). The character portrayals were desperately lacking diversity in characterization one finds no trace of Hispanic American characters. Most of the characters were drawn flat, bubbling with enthusiasm as one finds in The Glass Bottom Boat (Crane, Kawashima & Kawasaki, 2016). Furthermore, the unscrupulous side of the characters was accentuated in Let’s Make Love where the male protagonist was needed to indulge in a number of activities in order to gratify his boss and in The Birthday Boy we get clear sexual connotations dominating Andy Fowler’s relationship with her boss. In majority of the films, however, there is little or no proper description of the job of a PR. In certain circumstances, the audience gets quite a superficial idea of being a PR with hardly any conceptual work to do, where the employees merely required tokeep up a crisp and firm physical appearance.

Misconceptions and Negative Portrayal of PR Practitioners in Hollywood Films

Some of the recurring themes of these Hollywood films regarding the portrayal of PR practitioners are morally flawed characters, where in Sweet Smell of Success, it has been explicitly conveyed how lying is inherent in a character of PR. Not just this particular film but the notion was reflected in a number of films produced during the period. PR became one of those professions that insistently received an inauspicious portrayal in the film and a study of these film resonate the common perception and beliefs surrounding the profession of a PR. The films illustrate inadequate and malicious depiction of life of a PR (Storey, 2016).

Apart from assessing the portrayal of PR practitioners in films, one must also understand the pivotal impact it has left on the society. The film directors had failed to associate any lucid and intact idea with the profession of public relation and in some cases, the term public relation practitioners were not at all mentioned in the entire cinema. From Miller’s analysis, it is easy to conclude that the PR practitioners in the typical Hollywood film and entertainment that dominated the era of 90’s were to choose from the two conflicting scenarios of choosing between their profession an high moral values, which ultimately puts the profession of that of  a PR in a negative light. The seeds of these ideas have germinated in the society till this day, the practitioners are somewhat viewed in the light of sexual promiscuousness, moral imbeciles, greedy. The films are all equipped inadequate portrayal of their inner conflicts that would have had evolve them as better characters (Ames, 2010).  Even today, public relations find it difficult to escape from the clutches of negative associations and stereotypes that has been associated with the profession of a PR practitioner. The character if Russ Duritz from The Kid though is a successful image consultant, nonetheless, he is manipulative and lacks any concrete relationship in life. The character is again typically reminiscent of Stuart Shepherd from the movie Phone Booth.Therefore, it becomes apparent from the above study how ideologies and concepts are shaped and re-shaped by mass media. The concepts that mass media creates, shape society and culture and presents the interests of the dominant class in a society.

Apart from film and entertainment, media relations play an indispensable role for U.S public relation and professionals (Franklin& Parton, 2014). In fact, both the terms are almost synonymous in the U.S public relation sector. Film and entertainment, slogans, visual logos and interactive media play an important role in re-shaping culture and beliefs and carries idea from one place to the other (Boggs, 2017). Film and entertainment industry of U.S has for decades reinstated social norms that give a concrete shape to social system and legitimize the same. The proliferation of communication technology has made it convenient for the dissemination of information and assimilation of cultures. Therefore, today the public relation practitioners have acquired the five basic strategies for any given country- culture, political ideology, economic system, media and activism. The mass media is at the crux of power when it comes to influence public opinion and facilitate organizational communication (Lambert, 2011). Amidst these factors, the omnipotence of Hollywood, media and entertainment sector in relation with public relation and functioning is undeniable.

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