International PR and Research

1
International PR and Research

• Conference Theme The Importance of Public
  relations in the changing global environment
• What constitutes environment for PR?
• Culture (societal and corporate)
• Media systems
• Political Systems
• Economic System (level of development)
• Level of Activism

2
Asia in a globalizing world

• Population and market size
• MNCs flocking markets in China, India, ASEAN
• Diversity (e.g. cultures, religions)
• Home to all major religions
• Region of conflicts requiring intense
  cross-cultural communication

3
Current Status of PR in Asia

• Public relations spin doctoring seeking
  positive publicity
• Very little research behind PR activities
• Most research is marketing oriented
• Evaluative limited to outputs and not outcomes
• Outcome evaluation is limited to awareness
• Changes in levels of comprehension and Knowledge,
  and attitude and behavioral change rarely
  evaluated

4
Reasons

• Lack of desire power (DC, clients)
• Low level of expertise for conducting
  sophisticated public relations research
• Absence of theory-based Public Relations
  education in most Asian universities
• Even graduate public relations education is
  skills-oriented
• Asian universities have yet to become centers of
  public relations research

5
Recommendations

• Education in Asia at the undergraduate, graduate,
  and professional levels needs rethinking /
  retooling
• Two questions should guide the PR industry
• How do you measure the effects of PR?
• How do you show the value of PR to an
  organization and society?
• Measure outputs and outcomes (Q1)
• Need to measure relationships (Q2)