International public relations’ influence on media coverage and public perceptions of foreign countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of international public relations on a target country's news coverage and public perceptions toward other countries. This study proposed a public relations influence model of national image formation and tested its relationships based on 27 countries’ public relations effort targeting the U.S. news coverage and publics. This study found that (1) public relations of other countries in the U.S. had a direct impact on how significantly the U.S. public perceived those countries; (2) the more prominently and favorably foreign countries were covered by the U.S. news media, the more significantly and favorably the U.S. public perceived and felt toward those countries.     

An analysis of other countries’ international public relations in the U.S.

The purpose of this study was to examine the various aspects of international public relations by other countries in the U.S. Based on the Foreign Agency Registration Act (FARA) report in 2002, this study analyzed client, activity types, purpose of activity, and key U.S. partners for activity. This study found that (1) business organizations and central governments were major clients of international public relations in the U.S., (2) meeting with governmental officials and congressional leaders was the primary type of activity followed by information dissemination, and (3) economic purpose led by trade promotion was the primary motive for these activities.     

From silence to condemnation: Institutional responses to “travel ban” Executive Order 13769

On January 27, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order that attempted to bar citizens and refugees from seven countries from entering the U.S. for a certain time period. One of the contexts most directly affected by this order was higher education. This study examined college and university communicative responses to the order from a public relations perspective. We qualitatively determined a range of responses from U.S. universities then quantitatively determined variables of particular colleges and universities that had a correlation to the nature of the responses. Responses were then assessed using public relations best practices. The data suggest variables with relationships to type of institutional response were number of international students and political stance of the state where the institution is located. While there was no single “correct” type of response, best practices suggest two options for appropriate responses to the order.     

Propaganda or public relations campaign? International communication on the war against Iraq

Cross-cultural survey on the war against Iraq from different cultures may help to assess whether the public relations war has succeeded or failed. Overall the public of the U.S. and the U.K. formed similar evaluations of the war; whereas South Korean opinion was lay on the opposite side of the continuum. The present study suggests that public relations campaigns administered by the U.S. government did not generate favorable opinions in countries other than the U.S.     

Effects of government public relations on international news coverage

Using content analysis of an international newspaper and a government publication, this study examines the influence of newsworthiness and public relations efforts on international news coverage, one of the key sources for understanding other countries. Grounded in gatekeeping theory, this study hypothesizes strong relations between three variables (newsworthiness, public relations involvement, and international news coverage) in the context of several South Korean news stories.     

Global economic restructuring and international migration: some observations based on the Mexican and Central American experience

"The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between processes of global economic restructuring and international migration through an examination of Mexican and Central American immigration to the U.S. and the experiences of Central American and Mexican immigrants in the U.S. This relationship is analysed as one of mutual causation: on the one hand, global restructuring affects conditions in both sending and receiving countries (it is not only a factor in emigration but also in the economic and political receptivity to immigrants at their point of destination); on the other, international migration in turn has an important impact on countries of origin, receiving countries, and the relationship between them." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

错综复杂的世界经济未来会走向哪里？

当前世界经济形势依然错综复杂。希腊退出和西班牙银行违约的风险可能造成全球经济的二次探底;德、法债权国深知欧元区存在的重要性和失去的可怕性;美国经济复苏来自于自身利益至上的考量,并不见得会给中国带来机会。为此,各国政府一定要加强国际合作和国际协调的力度,同时,要根据各国经济内在的比较优势,努力创造外部良好的开放环境,打造市场活力,确保世界投资与贸易健康成长,从而让实体经济的繁荣去吸收各国政府救市以来所创造出的大量流动性。     

Networks of international public relations production: The case of Latin American organizations’ connections to U.S. agents

Traditionally, international public relations studies have assumed that a foreign organization, namely a foreign government, is the primary influence on how its home country is portrayed to audiences abroad. This study challenges such assumption of independence by revealing how foreign organizations are connected in ways previous works have not considered. Using Foreign Agents Registration Act data, we reveal the direct and indirect connections that form when foreign organizations hire U.S. agencies to produce their international public relations work. Our network analysis of foreign organizations from Latin American and their U.S. agents documents the network structures that emerge for each country and identifies the types of organizations that are positioned advantageously in the networks. We use these findings to theorize how foreign organizations’ connections and their key positions in networks may influence the production of international public relations efforts for their home country. We at a macro-level, public relations effects depend on the structure of the networks, the overlapping sites where communication content is produced, and who is positioned as key players in the production networks.     

An inside-out exploration of contemporary Chinese public relations education

This study provides an inside-out examination of contemporary Chinese public relations education. Particularly, it seeks to explore (1) how Chinese public relations educators make meaning of the imported U.S. body of knowledge of public relations; (2) how Chinese educators conceptualize Chinese public relations; and (3) the connection and disconnection between academia and industry. We conducted 49 face-to-face in-depth interviews and performed content analysis of 22 Web sites of Chinese universities with public relations programs. Research findings reflected the movement of Chinese PR from a merely technical function to a more strategic function centering on relationship building, reputation, social responsibility, and organizational identity. The findings also suggested significant influence of the U.S. PR education on the development of Chinese public relations education manifested through textbook adoption and core curricular design. However, the study has also shown that educators have undertaken substantial effort to localize the imported knowledge in accordance with China's unique cultural, economic, and political systems.     

The relationship of U.S. aid,trade and investment to migration pressures in major sending countries

"It has often been suggested that U.S. foreign economic policies, including the areas of aid, trade and investment, could be utilized to influence migration pressures in major sending countries. This study explores the feasibility of this proposition by examining the linkages between these U.S. economic instruments and migration 'push' factors. These linkages are shown to be indirect, are often quite complex, and the final impact on migration, except perhaps in the long run, is probably small in most cases."     

Does money talk? A framing analysis of the Chinese Government’s strategic communications in the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank1

This study investigates the public relations strategies employed by the Chinese Government to convince other countries to join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). A framing analysis was conducted to examine the presence, valence, and evolution of the framed messages involving soft power resources and the dimensions of the relationship between organizations and the public. The findings included the following: (a) China’s economic strength was the predominant soft power resource; (b) the relational frames disclosed China’s strategic intention in attempting to expand the narrow space that is currently available for the country’s international activities by expressing willingness to obey the rules of the existing US-dominated economic order; and (c) international newspapers showed more interest in and more negative attitudes toward the relational dimension of trust, which indicates the need for the Chinese Government to continue to dispel doubts about the geopolitical role of the AIIB.     

He who pays the piper,calls the tune? Examining Russia’s and Poland’s public diplomacy efforts to shape the international coverage of the Smolensk crash

The study explores Polish and Russian governments’ communication efforts to shape international news coverage of the 2010 airplane crash near Smolensk, Russia, which killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and most of his Cabinet. More specifically, the study attempts to assess the role of government communication in shaping the international agenda regarding the crash vis-à-vis the role of Polish and Russian media outlets which also served as information sources for international media. In addition, it examines politico-cultural proximity and economic relatedness as the factors influencing the outcomes of mediated public diplomacy efforts. The findings suggest that, in addition to the governments’ public relations messages, Polish and Russian news outlets played a significant role as their countries’ advocates in determining the international media agenda. Moreover, we found that it was economic relatedness rather than the similarity of culture or political systems that contributed to the success of governments in shaping the international agenda about the crash. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and public diplomacy are discussed.     

The death of bin Laden: How Russian and U.S. media frame counterterrorism

This study explored how Russian and U.S. newspapers covered the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 through the lens of framing theory. Results reflect significant disparity in how media in different countries covered the same event, suggesting that terrorism events were framed as national concerns rather than global issues, thus potentially limiting governments and the media from building a shared understanding with international audiences. The findings also indicate that more robust media relations efforts are needed to counter simplistic media counterterrorism frames. Finally, the study identified new frames for counterterrorism including secrecy and humanizing terrorists. These new frames suggest the need to expand the framing literature to provide a better understanding of how the media cover counterterrorism, which may impact the U.S. government's public diplomacy and counterterrorism efforts.     

Institutionalizing Public Relations: An International Multiple-Case Study

This research predicts and supports a model of potentially ascending cultural competence beginning with public relations practitioners' preparation for international assignments, leading to assignment-seeking behavior, success, and satisfaction in those assignments, leading to consequently increased cross-cultural competence. Results indicate that academic and professional preparation for international assignments among U.S. practitioners is limited, but that preparation correlates positively with success and satisfaction in international assignments.     

Beyond excellence: Extending the generic approach to international public relations: The case of Bosnia

This article extends the generic approach to international public relations research. The current generic approach, based on the Excellence theory of public relations, suggests a normative framework to study and evaluate international public relations practices. This generic approach has great potential for focusing international research and clarifying infrastructure, geopolitical, legal, cultural, media, and other important variables. Unfortunately, this generic approach has been mainly used to confirm the Excellence model of public relations. Thus, it falls short of providing scholars and practitioners the tools they need to conduct and study global public relations. This paper seeks to clarify international public relations research by explicating rhetorical generic theory (RGT).     

Communicating on Behalf of Global Civil Society: Management and Coordination of Public Relations in International Nongovernmental Organizations

In the last few decades, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become influential actors in creating awareness of international social, political, environmental and economic causes in global society. However, NGOs have not received much attention in research on international public relations. This study contributes to filling that gap by analyzing how NGOs manage public relations according to the generic principles of excellence in global public relations and how they coordinate strategic communication between headquarters and local units. An online survey of 440 practitioners revealed 2 excellence clusters and 4 clusters of organizations with differing degrees of centralization. Excellent NGOs were found to assign more resources to public relations and more frequently considered cultural context in their communication programs. Thus, the study gives significant insights into international public relations practice in the global civil society sector and reveals further need for modifying and extending public relations theory in that respect.     

Local Economic Opportunity and the Competing Risks of Internal and U.S. Migration in Zacatecas,Mexico1

This article uses a competing risks model to examine the effects of origin economic conditions on the probability of temporary U.S. and internal labor migration in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. We measure origin economic conditions with municipal‐level indices of employment and small‐scale investment opportunities that we constructed from population and economic census data. The results of our analysis demonstrate the important influence of local employment and investment opportunities on migration outcomes. Controlling for the prior municipal rate of U.S. return migration and other factors, positive opportunities for small‐scale investment are associated with a higher risk of temporary migration to the United States. This result is consistent with investment oriented migration predicted by the new economics of labor migration theory. We also find comparable social network effects for both internal and U.S. migration. Having social ties to active migrants of one type (U.S. or internal), encourages migration of the same type and discourages migration of the other type.     

Fostering social capital in an international multi-stakeholder issue network

Scholars have theorized that public relations contributes to societies and communities by bringing attention to pressing public issues and fostering social capital in civil society networks. However, the extant research has studied civil society networks of NGOs, donors, and the media in transitional countries. This study extends the public relations model of civil society in two ways. First, it broadens the scope to an international context. Second, it draws from the multi-stakeholder issue network perspective to conceptualize a civil society network as a space where stakeholders of an issue mix their interests as they collectively address a pressing public issue. The literature on international and multi-stakeholder networks suggest that the international scope and the mixing of interests across sectors may restrict the production of social capital. The results from the social network analysis suggests that the mixing of interests across sectoral and geopolitical boundaries did not restrict the production of social capital. Rather, the patterns of the relationships among those on the core and those on the periphery of the network restricted the production of social capital. Such finding demonstrates how public relations’ functions like relationship building can have profound influences on social capital and civil society networks. The implications for public relations theorizing and research are discussed.     

Migration of Highly Skilled Chinese to Europe: Trends and Perspective

Since China's economic opening and reforms in 1978, the country has broadened and deepened its exchanges and relations with other countries. This has contributed to the increase in the scale of international migration of highly skilled Chinese abroad. The impact of the migration of highly skilled Chinese on China and the relevant nations particularly deserve attention and study. Following the earlier migration flows mainly to the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the migration of highly skilled Chinese to Europe has become a notable new trend. Currently, the flow of international migration of highly skilled Chinese personnel is mainly oriented toward Europe and the United States. While studying abroad has been the main form of migration of the skilled, this has now been joined by the migration of technical and professional staff, and the trend is increasing. The main country of destination for Chinese students is the United States, which absorbs more than half of the total, while Australia and Canada receive the largest number of skilled Chinese manpower. The United States also receives a large number of Chinese technical personnel, but its proportion has declined, while the flow to Europe has sharply increased. This development may be attributed to the global expansion of economic, scientific and technological, as well as cultural and educational exchanges and cooperation. But it is also the result of an increase in the educational investment made by the Chinese people following the continuous increase in China's economic strength and the population's personal income. Of greater importance are the gaps between China and Europe at the scientific, technological, and educational levels and the research and marketing environment. The intervening changes in labour market and immigration policies in European and American countries accelerate the trend further. For all of these and other reasons, the spatial distribution of Chinese students will become more balanced and play a positive role in the promotion of mutually beneficial exchanges between China and other countries.