| Chapter 1: | Introduction—Surveying the Cyberterrain of Developing Country Head of State Web Sites |
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As a result, Alanazi (1996) believes the popular perception is of Arab nations using “public relations as a ‘weapon’ to achieve political goals” (p. 239).
Cultural differences give rise to distinctly different communication traditions between most Arabic nations and the United States. In anthropologist Edward Hall’s (1977) terms, the United States is a low-context culture, which demands direct, clear, explicit information. Information not presented in these terms is judged suspect. Arabic countries are high context, meaning nuance, repetition, presentation, and poetic imagery are prized (Ihator, 2001; Zaharna, 1995). The result is that a literal translation of Arabic communication pieces produces run-on sentences full of adjectives: “A press release, for example, may read more like a political proclamation than a news announcement” (Zaharna, p. 255). Ihator warns that “communication styles and paradigms which previously worked may be irrelevant in today’s global marketplace” (p. 15).
In U.S. culture, it is the responsibility of the speaker to make the message clear; in Arabic culture it is the responsibility of the listener to intuit the meaning, and who delivers the message may even be more important than the message itself (Zaharna, 1995). Thus Sriramesh’s personal influence model (1992) may be especially apt to describe public relations practices in the Middle East, where social systems are highly formalized, and knowing a person’s place in society is more important than developing good media relations. For example, a 1985 study of UAE practitioners found they view public relations not as a communications function but as a social relations one, placing a great deal of emphasis on receiving delegations (Creedon, Al-Khaja, & Kruckeberg, 1995).
Summary
Although public relations research has made significant advances in the past few decades, it is still an immature academic area, which the dearth of regional and country-specific studies indicates.