The Tenth Week.

Chapter 13: Close to home – The Asian heart.

At my very last chapter, I realized that I have learnt so much more about Public Relations through reading and have now found a whole new respect for PR practitioners. Plus, I never thought that I would actually go through the entire book, I have a new found respect for myself as well!

Being able to look at Public Relations in a different light has taught me to keep in mind that the world today has a whole new expectation for PR professionals and that we have to take on a lot more tasks. Being on top of everything, being able to solve problems, keeping your creativity, maintaining good relationships with the media as well as people working with you, not forgetting your audience and key publics. All at once being smart and humble. That’s a PR professional for you.

I find this chapter very interesting because I can relate to it, it talks about focusing on Asian public relations management, and it is a important chapter to read if I seriously consider public relations as my potential career path.

I learnt that if you take the US for example, the ‘united’ portrays an image that they are ‘one’ and that no Asia country will be able to hold the same image to them. And if you were to look at upcoming countries like China or India, there isn’t another country in Asia or in the West who’s able to follow the same image as they portray. And that is why Public Relations are made up of so many different variables to fit to all the countries.

I also learnt that there are a number of important factors at work in Asia that make up the job of PR more complex than it may be in individual Western countries. These factors are Trade, Languages, Government Intent, Stakeholders, and Personal Interaction. I could relate to the personal interaction the most – For PR practitioners in Asia, the primary source of income and employment is the direct client. The clients are ones who directly influence and persuade the stakeholder of most interest today. For example, if a customer came to your restaurant and had a bad experience, they would complain and word-of-mouth travels fast, thus causing the stakeholder to hear about this and they would question your reliability.

“The human channel – discussion and conversations at local level – provides a more valuable opinion-forming mechanism in Asia, compared to the West.” (Hung & Chen, 2004)

The important point is that some countries aspire to professionalism as it is being pursued vigorously in the West, while others are content to meander along, using different public relations models and technologies with little consideration for long-term implications.