| Chapter 1: | The Role Of Public Relations In Global Issues |
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As we have argued elsewhere (Curtin & Gaither, 2005, p. 93), such a functional, managerial-driven, neoliberal approach
privileges public relations as practiced in highly developed nations with robust economies over alternative forms of practice in less developed regions (Botan, 1992) and has spawned a large amount of academic research confined to a small number of developed nations (Sriramesh & Verčič, 2003). The result is a unidimensional model, often based on corporate practice operating within democratic nations (Pearson, 1990), that ignores the rich history of public relations as an ancient, worldwide practice (L’Etang, 1996) and “excludes competing, marginalized, critical, or oppressed voices (Duffy, 2000, p. 312)
Now, as then, we take the broader view that public relations is a widely occurring communicative practice with roots in ancient histories from around the globe. As such, public relations is not a U.S.-born phenomenon, nor is its use limited to corporations and governments. It encompasses a variety of forms, including propaganda and activist communications, health edutainment campaigns and union organizing. It is, as McKie and Munshi (2007, p. 44) have noted, “a means by which groups through the ages have argued their case and sought to achieve their aims.”
In keeping with this broad definition, we examine public relations practices in terms of their relations to human rights and social justice, situating those practices within the broader social and cultural changes that globalization has created, as well as in the context of increasing economic disparities. The purpose is not to bash globalization, the West, TNCs, or any entity that antiglobalizationists may vilify. We believe that globalization is not, in and of itself, inherently good or bad. We take a transformationalist view of globalization in that we are “interested in more dialectical and less one-sided analyses of the complexities, erasures, and new possibilities that are emerging from global flows and disjunctures” (Bardhan & Weaver, 2011, p. 5). Throughout the book, then, we point out examples of TNCs that behave badly and others that serve as models, designing affordable, appropriate technologies and committing themselves to corporate