Public Relations

PRO285 Public Relations in Society

PR in China

Topic 12

Lecture objectives

• To introduce brand ‘China’ from a Western perspective

• To explore PRO285 themes, including nation-building, society, and culture, in relation to China

• To consider the role public relations plays in China today

• To introduce contemporary understandings of public relations in China

What is ‘China’ [from an outsider’s perspective]?

• ‘China museum shut over fakes’, Telegraph, 22 May 2014

• ‘China fighters in “dangerous” brush with Japanese planes’, Channel News Asia, 25 May 2014

• ‘In smog-choked China, a scramble for breathable air’, USA Today, 25 May 2014

• Australia budgeting on China’s economy, The Daily Reckoning, 14 May 2014

• ‘Bomb attack in China labelled as 'violent terrorist incident‘, ABC News, 22 May 2014

• ‘China: Censors work overtime for Tiananmen anniversary’, Index on Censorship, 23 May 2014

China

• an enduring country with support, and a lack of effective opposition, from citizens

• based on a peasant society whereby citizens were long unable to determine their own fate and contribute meaningfully to social political processes

• built on the establishment of a meritocratic bureaucracy centred around the throne and emperors

• the benefits of westernisation and modernisation came with the leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 in an attempt to mitigate exploitation and poverty (Chen & Culbertson, 2009)

PR in China

 PR gained a presence in the early 1980s.

 PR grew rapidly but declined in the early 1990s.  Subordinate to marketing

(business)

 Rapid growth in PR recently  Chinese PR firms grew

 Change is occurring: economic change and political stability have contributed to divisions in Chinese PR.

Beijing Olympics

• Various Western public relations firms (including Bell Pottinger and Weber Shandwick Worldwide) were involved in lobbying on China’s behalf

• Their strategy was to argue that hosting the Olympics would allow China to better address human rights concerns.

• Hill & Knowlton provided advice on media training and press conferences, and encouraged China to take a visible position on human rights abuse #Burma

Hofstede’s dimensions & China

• Power distance: Chinese society believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable.

• Individualism/collectivism: highly collectivist culture where people act in the interests of the group and not necessarily of themselves.

• Masculinity/femininity: masculine society, success oriented and driven.

• Uncertainty avoidance: comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.

• Long-term orientation: highly long term oriented society, persistence and perseverance are normal.

Guanxi, guangxi

• Guangxi refers to one’s connections and friendships in order to get things done (Chen & Culbertson, 2009).

• Connection, social networking, interpersonal relationship, power, social status, resource transfer, under the table, invisible (Hackley and Dong, 2001)

• China is highly collectivist and therefore its people are interdependent...however...the increasing search for wealth may be contributing to an individualist way of thinking and acting (Hofstede & Bond, 1988).

Chinese perspectives I

• ‘PR is about information control and management, which is an important source of the government political power. PR in China should develop within the framework of Chinese laws and regulation. It ought to be ideologically correct and fit in with the party-state line.’ (Senior CIPRA member, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013).

• ‘China is a guanxi-rooted society. It entails acquaintance with one another by means of banquets, giving gifts, or networking.’ (PR consultant, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013)

Chinese perspectives II

• ‘Since we contest with journalists in terms of defining news values, following the state guideline can always be a platform or an opportunity for negotiating cooperation between different PR stakeholders. Either commercially oriented media or market-oriented PR should follow the Party ideology and the state themes.’ [In-house manager, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013]

• Chinese organizations tend to pursue result-driven and effect-guaranteed PR, which has led Chinese PR to positioning itself with a function of tactical implementation rather than strategic consulting.[PR consultant, cited in Hou, Zhu & Bromley, 2013]

References

• Chen, N. & Culbertson, H. (2009). Public relations in mainland China: An adolescent with growing pains. In K. Sriramesh & D. Verčič, (Eds.),The global public relations handbook: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed., pp. 175-197). Abingdon, England & New York, NY: Routledge.

• Hackley, C. A. & Dong, Q. (2001). American public relations and China's guanxi. Public Relations Quarterly, 46, 16-19.

• Hofstede, G. Bond, M. (1988). The Confucius connection: From cultural roots to economic growth. Organizational Dynamics,16(4), 5-21.

• Hou, Z. Zhu, Y. & Bromley, M. (2013). Understanding public relations in China: Multiple logics and identities. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 27(3), 308-328.