PR in North America: Presentation slides

To have more spesific information about these subjects you can read our articles written to this blog.

http://comprehension.prsa.org/?p=1256

-Ilari-

Read more.

-Heli-

-Heli-

Canadian communication patterns are much more low key than in US. Reserve, understatement, diplomacy and tact are key attributes and contrast sharply with the more direct approach of many Americans. Canadians still like to be direct and say what they mean. It unusual to find Canadians using overtly coded language. ‘Yes’ will usually mean ‘yes’ and ‘no’ will mean ‘no’. Canadians see evasive language as suspicious and would prefer any problems to be put onto the table for discussion. Still if you come from a culture where communication is very direct, you may wish to soften your demeanour and tone so as not to appear threatening. Canadians like their space and prefer to be at an arm’s length when speaking to someone.

Bilingual country
Canada is officially bilingual and the official languages are French and English which brings more challeces for PR professionals. Communication styles vary most between Anglophone and Francophone parts of the country. Francophones are generally more indirect than Anglophones, although less so than the French. They also tend to be more exuberant than Anglophones. Anglophones do not generally interrupt someone who is speaking. They consider it rude not to let a person complete their thought before entering the discussion. Francophones are more likely to interrupt another speaker.

Canadians are reticent to discuss their personal lives with business associates. They expect people to speak in a straightforward manner and to be able to back up their claims with examples. They do not make exaggerated claims and are suspicious of something that sounds too good to be true.

More information:
WorldBusinessCulture.com: Canadian communication style
Suite101.com: World’s Most Emotional Countries – Communication Styles also Differ by Culture
Zimbio: Cultural Considerations: Canada
Bnet: Internal communication in Canada

- Johanna -

They have tested the cars of Volkswagen.

http://explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa080800a.htm

Angela Merkers visit.

They said the trip was a PR gag that took the place of real action against climate change.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2742037,00.html

When Obama was shaking hands with the Japanese Emperor he bowed. So what? Isn’t that quite right thing to do to show some respect? Maybe not. This small gesture has caused a lot of discussion especially in the United States. “Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior”, write the Los Angeles Times. In U.S this gesture has considered to be too humble. The Los Angeles Times even asks: “How low will he go?”.

This example shows how important it is to know the other culture when doing PR. It can be said that “culture is the way people think, live, act and communicate”. As PR persons we need to know about people and their backround to understand their communications and get our own messages through in a right way. It is important to become acquianted with the local culture and be prepared to follow its rules while doing business there.

Like this “very low bow” of President Obama many cultural differences take the form of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication occurs through actions and cues other than words. PR practitioners can effectively use nonverbal communication to strengthen their message but if using wrong gestures, facial expressions or other signs the message can take a totally new form – which is not necessary a good thing.

Nonverbal communication is a rather new thing and its impact has been regognized only a while ago. Still, most communication relies not only spoken words but rather on symbols, images, logos, music, clothing, gestures, facial expressions, colours and settings – to mention a few.

And to get back to Obama. To me, the bow doesn’t look that bad but I’m not that familiar with japanese culture either… But I don’t know. Does this reveal the right kind of messages that go hand in hand with the intended?  What do you think?

Is nonverbal communication important in public relations activities?

-Reeta-

The article in the Los Angeles Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html

In generally marketing can be split to two activities: advertising and Pr. Advertising is paid activities, where for example company’s products are promoted. Pr on the other hand is so called un-paid activity. It includes media relations, internal communications, government relations, issues management, development, and lobbying and even more. But in this point of view social media falls under PR because its unpaid – and thus PR. On the other hand many departments incorporate social media.

http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2009/07/defining-public-relations-for-social-media.html

PR professional Steve Rubel even predicted that social media is transforming social media. Rubel states that some of the practices of public relations are becoming obsolete and that the new era of public relations is just beginning.

http://www.podtech.net/home/930/social-media-transforming-public-relations

That was just some basic information about social media and PR. I will probably go little deeper to this subject in future and write more about it. Below are also some useful web sites and one interesting blog about social media and PR.

http://metricsman.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/five-social-media-pr-measurement-trends-to-watch-in-2009/

http://www.slideshare.net/eschipul/strategic-pr-with-social-media

http://prandtheweb.com/

-Ilari-

Canada
“Canadian opinion elites’ trust in business is on par with their trust in NGOs (both at 49%), the first time since 2005 that this has occurred. But with many Canadians uneasy about a continuing business trend – the takeover of local companies by global concerns – business has not yet achieved the “halo” long enjoyed by NGOs. The
unease may come in part from opinion elites’ pride in Canada’s position as a sophisticated business partner, rather than dominator.

Trust in media is at its highest level (48%) since the Trust Barometer began tracking it in 2005, and trust in traditional media sources and expert spokespeople increased significantly since last year. While the Internet and social media are highly used by the general population, their credibility and usage among opinion elites is relatively low compared to other countries. Younger opinion elites are more interested than their older counterparts in outlets like Wikipedia for reliable information about companies. But companies may want to look to traditional outlets first when trying to reach Canada’s opinion elites.”

Brazil and Mexico
“In Brazil and Mexico, the principal economic engines of Latin America, business is trusted for its tangible positive impact on life: its products, the local economic opportunities it provides through jobs, and the active role it plays in people’s daily lives. In some areas, it’s a larger role than that of the government, which is the least trusted institution in Mexico (49%) and Brazil (22%).

Companies headquartered in Mexico and Brazil are not widely trusted around the world. But in both countries, most non-national brands and companies enjoy high levels of trust. This provides global companies with the opportunity to establish themselves in two countries that are widely receptive to business.

Culturally, Brazil and Mexico share a more trusting “nature,” with overall higher trust scores than in the other countries surveyed. Given the two countries’ emphasis on the importance of family and personal relationships, “a person like me” retains high credibility as a source of information about companies, as Latin Americans give the highest ranking to conversations with friends and peers of all regions surveyed.”

- Johanna -

According to our lovable friend Wikipedia “A video news release (VNR) is a video segment created by a PR firm, advertising agency, marketing firm, corporation, or government agency and provided to television news stations for the purpose of informing, shaping public opinion, or to promote and publicize individuals, commercial products and services, or other interests. In this way, VNRs are video versions of press releases.”

According to the report of Center of Media and Democracy (CMD) released in 2006 television newscasts—the most popular news source in the United States—frequently air VNRs without disclosure to viewers, without conducting their own reporting, and even without fact checking the claims made in the VNRs. CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs and these stations reach more than half of the U.S. population.

Although the forms of different media formats have increased, television remains the dominant news source in the United States. To reach this audience the public relations industry uses video news releases. VNRs are overwhelmingly produced for corporations, as part of larger public relations campaigns. The main finding of the study were following:

• VNR use is widespread

• VNRs are aired in TV stations of all sizes – it doesn’t depend on the size which station wants to cut its own producing costs.

• TV stations don’t tell the audience weather the piece of news is a VNR or not – they alter the VNR’s appearance to fit the stations own productions.

• TV stations disguise VNRs as their own reporting.

• TV stations don’t usually check the information provided by VNR – they don’t even know if the claims are true.

• The vast majority of VNRs are produced by corporate clients – only few came from government agencies or non-profit organizations.

The stations really need the VNRs to reduce the producing costs but what about the audience? Don’t they deserve to have accurate information about thing? Well, sure I know this happens a lot and this was not a surprise… But are VNRs much used in other parts of the world, too? Or is this just a U.S. phenomenon? I don’t think so.

The full report is here: http://www.prwatch.org/pdfs/FakeTVNews_Apr2006Rpt.pdf

-Reeta-