Международные связи с общественностью: обзор исследований = International public relations: review of research

МИНИСТЕРСТВО НАУКИ И ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ  
РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

УРАЛЬСКИЙ ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ  
ИМЕНИ ПЕРВОГО ПРЕЗИДЕНТА РОССИИ Б. Н. ЕЛЬЦИНА

Екатеринбург
Издательство Уральского университета
2019

О. В. Новоселова

МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЕ СВЯЗИ 
С ОБЩЕСТВЕННОСТЬЮ:  
ОБЗОР ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS:  
REVIEW OF RESEARCH

Учебное пособие

Рекомендовано
методическим советом Уральского федерального университета
в качестве учебного пособия для студентов вуза,
обучающихся по направлению подготовки
42.04.01 «Реклама и связи с общественностью»

Н76
Новоселова, О. В.
Международные связи с общественностью: обзор исследова-
ний = International public relations: review of research : учеб. пособие / 
О. В. Новоселова ; М-во науки и высш. образования Рос. Федерации, 
Урал. федер. ун-т. —  Екатеринбург : Изд-во Урал. ун-та, 2019. — 
96 с. —  Загл. парал. рус., англ. —  Текст англ.
ISBN 978-5-7996-2629-7

В учебно-методическом пособии представлены аутентичные тексты, 
отражающие специфику деятельности профессионалов в сфере связей 
с общественностью в экономической, политической и социальной сферах 
в зарубежной практике. Особое внимание уделено методическим разработ-
кам, направленным на изучение следующих вопросов: приемы разработки 
PR-кампаний в разных странах, влияние культурных ценностей на работу 
PR-специалиста в иноязычной стране, особенности работы со средства-
ми массовой информации в разных странах, технологии выстраивания 
коммуникаций правительственных и неправительственных организаций 
с зарубежной целевой аудиторией.
Рекомендуется студентам магистратуры по дисциплине «Международ-
ные связи с общественностью».
ББК С524.224.67я73-1

ББК 
С524.224.67я73-1
 
Н76

ISBN 978-5-7996-2629-7 
© Уральский федеральный университет, 2019

Ре ц е н з е н т ы:
кафедра общественных связей  
Сибирского государственного университета науки и технологий  
(заведующий кафедрой кандидат филологических наук,  
доцент А. В. Михайлов);
Е. А. Киселев, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент кафедры 
туристического бизнеса и гостеприимства Уральского 
государственного экономического университета; 
Н. В. Сазонова, кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры 
иностранных языков и образовательных технологий  
Уральского федерального университета

CONTENTS

Introduction 
5

Chapter 1. Theoretical Framework of International Public Relations (IPR): 
Research and Practice 
9
1.1. Definition of International Public Relations 
9
1.2. International Public Relations Approaches 
11
1.3. International Public Relations in Practice 
15

Chapter 2. Culture and International Public Relations 
23
2.1. The Influence of Culture on International Public Relations 
23
2.2. Hofstede’s Values Work 
25
2.3. The Personal Influence Model of Public Relations 
29
2.4. The Circuit of Culture Model 
32

Chapter 3. Mass Media and International Public Relations 
40
3.1. The Urgency of Mass Media in International Public Relations 
40
3.2. The Process of Mass Media System Theories Development 
41
3.3. The Framework of Three Factors  
for Designing Media Relations Strategies by Sriramesh 
43

Chapter 4. Public Relations, Diplomacy  
and Strategic Communications: International Model 
53
4.1. Public Relations and Public Diplomacy 
53
4.2. Convergence of Public Relations and Public Diplomacy 
55

4.3. Public Relations and Public Diplomacy:  
International Convergence Model 
57
4.4. Strategic Communication and Information Operations 
59
4.5. Integrated Information Activities and Strategic Communication 60

Chapter 5. International Public Relations of Foreign Governments 
63
5.1. The Role of International Public Relations  
in Nation Image Building 
63
5.2. The History of Building National Image 
65
5.3. Actors in the Field of Public Relations  
in the International Arena 
68
5.4. Images of Nations and the International Public Relations 
71
5.5. Methodological Framework for National Image Framing 
73

Chapter 6. Nongovernmental Organizations  
and International Public Relations 
85
6.1. Nongovernmental Organizations 
85
6.2. International Public Relations  
in Nongovernmental Organizations  
89

INTRODUCTION

The world increasingly has a global economy. The demand for public 
relations practitioners who understand and can communicate effectively 
in this global economy is also rapidly increasing. Specialists perceive 
an international PR curriculum to be highly important for students; they 
maintain that international training lends great credence and utility on 
the job.
The need for education in the field of international public relations has 
given rise to much discussion in recent decades. “Protectionist barriers 
have been taken down at a fast and relentless pace,” the field has become 
more internationalized, and from the 1980s onward U. S.-based public 
relations firms began generating between 30 % and 40 % of their reve-
nues serving foreign clients. As a consequence, there has been common 
agreement within the academic and professional communities that future 
public relations practitioners should understand cultural, societal and 
professional differences in order to be effective communicators across 
cultures.
Knowledge and experience in international affairs is increasingly 
significant to the practice of public relations. The 2006 Report of the Com-
mission on Public Relations Education dedicated an entire section to 
“global implications” in which the authors stated, “increasing multicul-
turalism and the diversification of the public relations field worldwide 
are creating new opportunities in the classroom and in the global public 
relations practice, as well as creating a greater need for practitioners, 

students and educators to be sensitive to diversity issues such as race, 
sex, age, ethnic origins and religious preferences.”*

The growth of teaching International Public Relations was seen 
to start in USA. Although by 2006 the number of higher education in-
stitutions with public relations programs that offer courses in international 
public relations in the United States is still aminority, approximately 
25 % of colleges and 20 % of professors, the growth has been substantial 
since 1989, when only one university in the country, Northern Arizona 
University, offered a course called International Public Relations. Thus, 
there is clearly a growing interest in this sub-discipline. This interest 
is reflected in the recent publication of various scholarly articles aiming 
to define a methodological framework for teaching international public 
relations, or to examine selected public relation educators and their in-
stitutions. There have also been multiple books that offer a perspective 
on how public relations are implemented across cultures.
Furthermore, the creation in 2009 of the Center for Global Public 
Relations at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC–CH) 
reflects an attempt by the United States educational world to try to solidify 
the growing demand for this discipline.
But it is hardly possible to see of International Public Relations pro-
grams in Russia as the understanding of this discipline importance is just 
arising in the frame of carrying out different international events, promo-
tion cities for attracting foreign tourists and developing attempts to build 
prosperous image of the country worldwide.
The discipline of international public relations surged in part as a re-
sponse from the public relations world to this new international context. 
It found its identity applying some of the intercultural communication 
principles developed in the 1960s to make a connection between culture 
and communication. If intercultural communication studies previously 
focused on how communication patterns differ across cultures, interna-
tional public relations scholars had as their purpose to analyze the vari-
ations of public relations practices around the world.

* Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education, “The Professional 
Bond —  Public Relations Education and the Practice”, ed. J. Van Slyke Turk, Public 
Relations Society of America (November 2006), section 5, 39.

The purpose of this book is to provide the overview of approaches 
in International Public Relation area and their practical usage in inter-
national work of PR practitioner. It will help for creating understanding 
of further steps in carrying out any PR campaign worldwide. Specifically, 
this book explains both the utility and importance of international public 
relations education among public relations educators and practitioners.
This book is for students in public relations and advertising major, 
as well as master students of the English-language program “PR and 
Advertising: Harmonization of Cross-Cultural Communications”.
The first chapter contains introductory information of existing the-
oretical approaches in the studies of international public relations. Also, 
there is a description of the main differences in national public relations 
from international one and basic concepts of international public rela-
tions. The specificity of using different approaches in practice is taken 
into account.
The second chapter considers approaches where a diversity in culture 
itself calls into question the practicality of two-way symmetric com-
munication approach while working as a public relations practition-
er in a foreign market. The typology of G. Hofstede’s values work and 
their application in the international activity of the PR specialist, as well 
as the theory of Circuit of Culture Model by E. Hall describing the prac-
tical implementation of the approach in the development of the interna-
tional PR campaign, visual elements in different countries are analyzed. 
The description and examples of the development of PR campaigns 
in different countries are given. The chapter concludes with a visual review 
of the Pepsi and Lays cases in several countries and provides a meaningful 
analysis of the material developed according to E. Hall’s approach which 
allows analyzing and explaining in details the implementation of theo-
retical material in practice.
The third chapter analyzes the relevance of the media in the field 
of international public relations, describes the process of developing 
the theory of media and presents the approach that facilitates the analysis 
of mass media in different countries.
The following chapters present an analysis of international public 
relations tools implementation in governmental and non-governmental 
organizations. The international model of strategic communications 

in public diplomacy is presented, the role of international relations with 
the public in designing the image of the country is emphasized, and 
the methodology for assessing the national image framing of the country 
is proposed.
All references according to literature use in each chapter are presented 
after it and are listed by surname, according to American Psychological 
Association style (APA Style).

Chapter 1   
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK  
OF INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS (IPR):  
RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

1.1. Definition of International Public Relations

The body of knowledge of public relations has grown significant-
ly in the last 25 years or so and public relations continues to evolve 
as a strong discipline. Encouraging as this is, growth has been very lop-
sided and almost all of the theory-building activity centers in the USA 
or in a few Western European countries. As a result, the body of know-
ledge makes only cursory reference, at best, to the rest of the world.
As a profession, however, a public relations is fast becoming global. 
The rapid expansion of communication technology has increased the dis-
semination of information about products, services and lifestyles around 
much of the world, thereby creating a global demand for these products. 
As a result, countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe 
and Latin America are going to be major markets in the new millennium. 
Meeting this global demand is not limited to a few large multinational 
corporations any more. Much smaller organizations can now compete 
globally because of communication technologies such as the Internet 
and satellite communication. The realignment of economic power caused 
by the formation of multinational trading blocs such as NAFTA, EC, 
ASEAN, APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Conference) and ASEM (Asia 
Europe Meeting) has also contributed to the shrinking global market-place.
International markets evolve rapidly and very often companies 
struggle to keep up in terms of their strategy. Krishnamurthy Sriramesh 

[Sriramesh, & Verčič, 2002] noted that meeting this global demand is not 
limited to a few large multinational corporations any more. Much small-
er organizations can now compete globally because of communication 
technologies such as the Internet and satellite communication. Every 
company or institution are overlooking increased sales, new knowledge 
and experience and higher profits.
By taking your products or services internationally, you are repli-
cating your business for another set of circumstances, a different locale 
and culture, with a different market, demands, needs and expectations. 
Public relations practitioners, working worldwide, should understand 
cultural, societal and professional differences across cultures in order 
to implement campaigns with a global reach.
There are significant differences in practicing public relations entirely 
within one’s own country versus across national boundaries [Foster, 1998]. 
As Larry Foster [1998] stressed, “Of all the areas of public relations and 
public affairs, the international sector is the most difficult to manage. It 
is more complex, more unpredictable, and generates more risk than most 
domestic-based public relations programs” (p. 1). Nigh and Cochran 
[1987] added that these “characteristics inherent in the conduct of busi-
ness across national boundaries” (p. 7) add great complexity in commu-
nicating with stakeholders.
The definition given by John Reed [1989], a recipient of the Public 
Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Atlas Award for lifetime service 
around the world “International public relations means you do it some-
where else, with audiences different from you cultural, linguistically, geo-
graphically” (p. 12) only proves the difficultness of doing public relations 
worldwide. Especially in the Internet era when everything is developing 
too fast and new challenges appear. Friedman [2006] explained that these 
affect “all the businesses, institutions, and nation-states that are now facing 
the inevitable, even predictable, changes but lack the leadership, flexibility, 
and imagination not because they are not smart or aware, but because 
the speed of change is simply overwhelming them” (p. 49).
Omenugha [2002] surmised that when Public Relations is planned 
to bring mutual understanding between an organization and its publics 
in various countries where the organization operates, that PR is said 
to be international. She further explained that when Public Relations 

policies and programs are used in projecting a favorable image of the or-
ganization, its business and its country in the global community, in an in-
terdependent world, that PR is international… It is a deliberate, planned 
and sustained effort geared towards securing the desired favorable image 
for the organization in the international community, paving way for 
profitable operations.
The basic difference between Public Relations and International 
Public Relations is that while the former targets its activities to publics 
located within a country, the publics of the latter are found across nation-
al boundaries. Hence Nwosu [1996] sees IPR as “deliberately planned, 
systematic and researched activities of an organization or nation which 
are aimed at maintaining sound, productive and mutual relations with 
international publics such as customers, agents, government, business 
and non-business organizations”. In essence, international public relations 
occur when the geographical scope of a PR campaign has been expanded 
to cover more than one national territory. This time the planning, research 
and communication that accompany public relations campaign at this 
level are all targeted at publics across national borders.
Wilcox, Cameron, Ault, and Agee [2007] said it better: “Internation-
al public relations may be defined as the planned and organized effort 
of a company, institution, or government to establish mutually benefi-
cial relations with the publics of other nations” (p. 516). The important 
elements in an international program, therefore, boil down to where 
the entity is located and to which publics it must build relationships. 
If the publics are located down the street or only within the same nation 
as the organization’s home base, interacting with them does not constitute 
international public relations.

1.2. International Public Relations Approaches

The 1990s heralded increased interest in gathering empirical evidence 
about public relations activities in different parts of the world.
Public relations play an important role in the world of international 
business. PR can help companies to develop positive images for their 
businesses and at the same time public relations play an important role 

as part of the marketing strategy. The challenge to choose the best ap-
proach to apply for doing public relation while working in different 
countries appeared. The debate on whether public relation can be prac-
ticed in similar ways in different countries was started three decades ago 
[Illman, 1980; Botan, 1992].
Those so called “ethnocentric perspective” scholars have agued that 
public relations practices should be no different from their own culture 
[Illman, 1980], whereas, “cultural relativist perspective” scholars have 
agued that public relations practice should be different in every society 
[Botan, 1992; Huang, 2000]. There were also “the middle way” scholars 
[Verčič, L. A. Grunig, & J. E. Grunig, 1996] who proposed a normative 
model of global public relations that contains generic principles and spe-
cific applications. However, there is a visible lack of truly comparative and 
international public relations research which can be used by practitioners 
as a model in their developing international communication strategy.
To sum up, the approach to this discipline has traditionally been based 
on two components that introduce a distinction with regard to the public 
relations field as a whole.
First, combined intercultural communication and public relations, 
much of the education and research in international public relations has 
relied on the application of a culture-general approach that focuses on 
how cultural differences affect communication between public relations 
practitioners, clients and publics from different cultures [Zaharna, 2001, 
p. 136]. Such cross-cultural researchers as Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck 
[1961], Hall [1989], and Hofstede [2001] have been extensive in the li-
terature in international public relations [Zaharna, 2001; Taylor, 2001]. 
The application of these cultural taxonomies has enabled, among other 
things, cross-cultural comparisons about preferred interpersonal rela-
tionship orientations within cultures [Kluckhohn, & Strodtbeck, 1961]; 
the amount of explicit and implicit information contained in messages 
and the division between “low-context” and “high-context” cultures [Hall, 
1989]; and the extent to which cultures believe that institutional power 
should be distributed equally or unequally, also called “power distance” 
[Hofstede, 2001].
The second component has been connected with the study of individ-
ual countries describing the state of their public relations industries and