Public Relations
Globalisation
Dr Kate Fitch
School of Arts
Lecture objectives
• To offer a working definition of globalisation pertinent to public relations
• To explore Appadurai’s notions of ethnoscape, technoscape, finanscape, mediascape and ideoscape (Pal & Dutta 2008)
• To introduce critical cosmopolitanism as a means of interrogating globalisation and specific professional (written) communication and public relations practices
• To provide examples from writing/public relations to concretise these concepts from a critical cosmopolitan perspective.
Globalisation
Globalisation is variously defined by different scholars and schools of thought:
• ‘Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples and countries, is generally understood to include two interrelated elements: the opening of borders to increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas across international borders; and the changes in institutional and policy regimes at the international and national levels that facilitate or promote such flows. It is recognized that globalization has both positive and negative impacts on development.’ World Health Organization http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story043/en/index.html
• Globalization ‘denotes the expanding scale, growing magnitude, speeding up and deepening impact of transcontinental flows and patterns of social interaction’ (Held and McGrew 2002, p.1).
• A ‘macroeconomic thesis’ (Appiah 2006, xiii)
Globalisation
Appadurai’s -scapes
These flows contribute to structuring interactions and diversity in a globalised world. They are not fixed entities or identities, but shift and change according to who, context, time and perspective:
• Ethnoscapes: flows and movements of people, diasporic communities
• Technoscapes: communication flows through networks (online, social media, etc.)
• Finanscapes: financial and capital flows
• Mediascapes: flows of mediated images, news, and media ownership patterns
• Ideoscapes: flows of and contradiction between competing ideologies.
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism, very broadly is the notion that all human beings regardless of their status, location or political affiliation, belong or can or should belong to one global community and that this community should be nourished.
The word cosmopolitan comes from the Greek kosmopolitês term meaning ‘citizen of the world’.
Cosmopolitanism foregrounds the ethical, interdependent dimensions of living and communicating in the world with others near and far, familiar and unfamiliar.
Public relations writing ‘has the potential to constitute a resistance to the dehumanising and decontextualising effects of a market economy-driven globalisation’ (Surma, 2013, p. 13).
Critical cosmopolitanism
Critical cosmopolitanism constitutes a ‘normative critique’ of globalisation (Delanty 2009, p. 250)
It is a communicative, self-reflexive response to the negative dimensions of globalisation or, as Beck puts it, a cosmopolitan outlook consists in:
‘Global sense, a sense of boundarylessness. An everyday, historically alert, reflexive awareness of ambivalences in a milieu of blurring differentiations and cultural contradictions. It reveals not just the “anguish” but also the possibility of shaping one’s life and social relations under conditions of cultural mixture. It is simultaneously a sceptical, disillusioned, self- critical outlook’ (Beck 2006, p. 3).
Relevance to PR
A critical cosmopolitan approach to communication in general and writing in particular helps us to both write and evaluate texts in terms of their capacity to be alert to the tensions between local and global, centre and periphery, self and other (us and them), similarity and difference.
Government communication strategy
‘Silence echoes across Canberra as the Coalition clams up’. (Hall, 2013)
‘This must be the first propaganda campaign in which the country producing it is portrayed as a villain? What was the government thinking?’ (Fletcher, 2014)
‘The veil of secrecy has worrying implications for press freedom in Australia.’ (Callinan, 2014)
Extracts from Fletcher, 2014
• ‘The comic represents the asylum seeker as merely an economic migrant: sick of working as a mechanic, his parents encourage him to seek a better life in Australia. Absent from this scene is violence and persecution, or any understanding of why the family is so poor. The boy seems to be an only child and the primary breadwinner for the family. What has made these parents so desperate to send their kid overseas for a better life?’
• ‘There’s very little human contact in the comic.’
Serco
Whose financial interests are being protected and supported by the government’s asylumseeker policy?
From ‘About us’ on Serco website: ‘Serco makes a difference to the lives of millions of people around the world. Our customers are national and local governments and leading companies. We have more than 50 years' experience of helping them to achieve their goals. By focusing on the needs of the people they serve, we enable our customers to deliver better outcomes.’
The Australian community
The strength of the Australian community means that
we work together to solve problems and to make
Australia the great country that it is. We have a stable
system of government and Australians respect the
authority and laws of the government. Our stability,
our culture and our laws have been shaped by our
history. By joining the Australian community, you will
inherit this history and you will be in a position to
contribute to it (excerpt from Citizenship: our common bond, Commonwealth of Australia 2009, p. 3).
… and their relevance for public relations
Critical cosmopolitanism problematises the impulse and tendency of globally-oriented communication processes and practices to homogenise, to imply one perspective as definitive or absolute; to deny or ignore difference; to silence alternative voices.
References
Appiah, A. K. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. New York, NY: WW Norton and Co.
Beck, U. (2006). Cosmopolitan vision. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Callinan, R. (2014). Manus Island: how information is kept under control. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed 3 March 2014 from http://www.smh.com.au/comment/manus-island-how-information-is- kept-under-control-20140225-33eob.html
Commonwealth of Australia (2009). Citizenship: our common bond, Commonwealth of Australia.
Delanty, G. (2006). The cosmopolitan imagination: The renewal of critical social theory. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Fletcher, M. (2014, February 23). ‘I’m a conservative but this asylum seeker comic is disgusting’. The Guardian. Accessed 3 March 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/13/asylum-seekers-graphic-campaign
Hall, B. (2013, November 3). Silence echoes across Canberra as the coalition clams up. Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed 3 March 2014 from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/silence-echoes-across- canberra-as-the-coalition-clams-up-20131102-2wt5k.html#ixzz2uu0jGBFW
Held D. & McGrew A. (2002). Globalization and anti-globalization. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing.
Macfarlane, E. (2014, February 14). The medium and the message: Comics about asylum seekers. The Conversation. Accessed 3 March 2014 from http://theconversation.com/the-medium-and-the- message-comics-about-asylum-seekers-23168
Surma, A. (2013). Imagining the cosmopolitan in public and professional writing. Houndmills, England: Palgrave Macmillan.