| Chapter 1: | Introduction—Surveying the Cyberterrain of Developing Country Head of State Web Sites |
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Kruckeberg (1989) notes that this new “Pan Europeanism” could shift public relations activities away from the traditional European public relations models of consumer publicity and crisis communications. The number of public relations associations is also skyrocketing in Europe; countries such as Ireland, Romania, Russia, and Italy are a few of the more than 20 different European nations with public relations associations. The growth of public relations in countries such as Italy is so prolific that T. M. Falconi, president of the Italian Federation of Public Relations, claims 1 of every 1,000 Italians is a “public relations operator” (2003, http://www.eprn.org/EuropeanPRnews2_1/Column1.pdf, p. 10).
Hardt (1979) and Carey (1979) believe the legacy of mass communication research in Germany make it a country with great potential for extending mass communication scholarship, particularly in public relations. With this idea in place, it appears that Germany and England are the prime movers in European public relations and that the types of public relations models practiced will continue to evolve. Recent case studies in the Netherlands (van Ruler, 2003) and Sweden (Flodin, 2003) found strong ties to public relations theory developed in the U.S. Bentele and Wehmeier (2003) observed online communication will become increasingly important in Germany, affecting both media and public relations development. And in Sweden, Flodin called the Internet the “single most important media development of the last decade for both journalists and public relations practitioners” (p. 254).
In Europe, where the Web and Internet are widespread, public relations is growing at a healthy pace, with reasonable difference based on political infrastructure and economics. Mallinson (1991) sees the European practice of public relations as varied, largely because there is no uniform standard for its practice in place. Lawniczak, Rydzak, and Trebecki (2003) might have summed up the European practice of public relations best in their analysis of the field in Poland. The authors agreed with Vercic, L. Grunig, and J. Grunig‘s (1996) postulate that certain “generic principles of public relations” apply to Poland, with nuances particular to culture. In the case of Poland, the authors contend it is the legacy of the Communist political economic system.