Post #14: Reading Response on Chapter Thirteen (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Thirteen: Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

Public Relations from the perspectives of Asian countries (defined as the ASEAN countries plus South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan) is discussed in this chapter. Since we live in an Asian country, this chapter is no doubt of great importance to framing our understanding of PR in a local context.

The main points of this chapter are as follows:

- to identify the various cultural issues relevant to PR practice in Asia

- the various aspects of PR as applied to the different Asian countries

- importance of identifying variables in PR => this is a particularly important point because no two Asian countries are identical; even neighbouring Asian countries can have different mindsets. Thus, the PR variables are situational in this regard.

I have mentioned in Post #2 about guanxi, or the term describing business or interpersonal relations that form part of the Chinese psyche. guanxi returns in this chapter, and Chia & Synnott (2009) describe various other similar terms that shape thinking in other Asian countries, such as cheong and no-cheong in Korea. The text draws a parallel between these and Bourdieu's social capital, which I found interesting and agreeable because the value of one's personal networks and relationships can come in handy at times. The simplest examples would be to get a newsworthy media release (that puts the organisation in a good light) published in print media because the PR practitioner is on good terms with the journalist covering the related beat.

The bulk of my reflection, however, will stem from PR practice in Singapore, with a case study similar to that presented in the book: Singapore's bid for the 1st Youth Olympic Games. The journey began in October 2007 when Singapore made its official bid to host a sporting event for 14 to 18 year olds around the world, the first such event of its magnitude.

Its objectives, like that of Incheon in South Korea for the Asian Games (Chia & Synnott, 2009), were to raise its profile as the best possible host city, and also to drum up support and awareness within the country for this bid, a demonstration of "collective will".

Publics and audiences included the voters at the IOC (International Olympic Committee) evaluation committee, the sporting and general media as well as the general public in  Singapore. Details of the bid can be found here. Singapore touted its high-technology, education and connectivity with the world, as well as its youthful vibrance and racial harmony as reasons for the right to host the inaugural Games.

With that, I believe the strategy of Singapore's bid team was to convince the IOC that Singapore was ready to host the games, in terms of budget, infrastructure, environment, standards of living, community support, and the key point: a culture of fostering inter-ethnic knowledge and a sporting atmosphere. The tactics of the Singapore Government's PR campaign are not immediately observable, but with regular news coverage in the sports section (from media releases, definitely - in this case I suppose government control of media is advantageous in this aspect), full government support, and outreach efforts conducted in schools at all levels nationwide, it is in my contention that the PR effects should be quite considerable. In addition, it is possible that Ng Ser Miang, who was on board the Bid Committee, used some of his personal relationships to influence his peers at the IOC to vote in favour of Singapore - this is PR working at the unit level: human to human.

With the buzz generated within the country about the bid, and all other considerations in place, Singapore finally defeated Moscow 53-44 to secure the rights to host the 1st Youth Olympic Games. We have therefore seen in this case study how a small country like Singapore can raise its profile when dealing with a supranational institution such as the IOC, demonstrating the potential of public relations and the will of the collective. 

Our journey through an introduction of public relations thus comes to an end, but this is only the beginning. For now though, I shall end this week's reflection, and my final post for this blog.

Post #13: Reading Response on Chapter Twelve (Chia and Synott, 2009).

Chapter Twelve: New Media and Public Relations

The idea of using new media as a PR tool is finally discussed in this chapter, which covers five main points. Firstly, an understanding of emerging new media concepts and theories are provided, followed by an overview of the technological impact on PR practices. Next, how the PR profession is challenged by new media is discussed together with some academic discourse on the use of social media as dialogue opportunities. We look at ethical practices in relation to new media and PR in the last part of the chapter.

Definitely, new media has gradually come to take a very important place in society. We have always been talking about the Internet and related computer technologies, and it is indeed true that the fast pace of development in this sector has led to a need for us PR practitioners to sit up and look at these new media platforms as a way of engaging the public.

Chia and Synnott (2009) mention discussions from academics about the unequal penetration of the Internet in different countries, ultimately a holistic mix of traditional and new media is needed to reach out to as many people as possible. While this is a valid concern and argument, for the sake of this blog entry I shall discount this fact and focus solely on new media and those who have access to it.

My reflection for this entry is based on two of the five tools of new media applications as discussed in our text, namely: blogs and game worlds like Second Life. The textbook describes blogs as a relatively new, yet powerful tool for PR, especially in researching the sentiments of the consumers "on the ground". An example to cement this point was related to me by my friend. Back in mid-2010, he faced a problem with overseas postage using SpeedPost.Written complaints to the organisation failed to have any effect, but the company got back to him within a day or two after he blogged about his troubles online, and linked the blog entry on Facebook (Chua, personal communication, 2010). This small little example does prove that blogs (in this case, of a personal nature) are a good tool for corporations to gauge responses from the public, and it shows that some organisations are actively trawling the Internet for any comments related to their organisation.

As we have seen in the "Wal-Marting Across America" example (Chia & Synnott, 2009), corporate blogs need to be transparent and honest; however there will always be the existence of cynical netizens (also termed "keyboard warriors") who will dismiss messages from corporations as propaganda and rely more on comments from the man-in-the-street. Even so, if done properly, the PR effects of blogging can be quite powerful, especially if an opinion leader gives good praise of a product or service after he has tried it out. A good example in the local context can be found in this newsletter, of which some mention is made of the collaboration between Nokia and Mr Brown (also known as Lee Kin Mun), a popular local blogger.

The other point, as mentioned above, would be the opportunities presented by mediated, virtual worlds. Chia & Synnott (2009) cite Second Life as an example, where many nations, corporations, companies, and even people, have a presence there. I believe that this sort of media, which also spans gaming worlds (both online and offline - although it becomes more akin to advertising in this sense), represents a huge chance for companies to pursue PR efforts through public outreach campaigns. The gaming equivalent might then be for the player to perform a task that is in line with the real-life goals of the organisation represented in-game. While it is indeed risky, a good portrayal of themselves (or even their in-game analogs) would no doubt raise their familiarity and profile among the participants of these virtual worlds.

Faced with the constant barrage of new media technologies and their spread around the world (even Singapore's politicians have been blogging, Facebooking, and tweeting for some time, now), the future for PR in this field seems especially exciting, and I thus end my reflection for this week on an upbeat note.