Eastern and Western public communication experts take advantage of the international setting to explore how diverse cultural perspectives impact communication with publics in a preconference session: "Global Public Relations & Strategic Communication: Envisioning the Interplay of Culture and Communication outside the Two-Way Symmetrical Box." The day-long session is being sponsored by the Lee Kong Chain School of Business of Singapore Management University (SMU). SMU is a dynamic, young university with a fast growing reputation for academic excellence. It is located in the heart of Singapore's historic area in the Bras Basah Park district and - it is only a short walk from the SUNTEC center.
The morning session will explore the relationship and impact of culture on public communication and public relations. One must assume each society/culture would have something to offer to public relations, and these contributions do not have to be overlaid on contemporary Western public relations as a baseline, e.g., two-way symmetry. Panelists will explore alternative visions of the role of public relations in society that bring contributions from indigenous cultures and will discuss applications to global public relations, strategic communication and public diplomacy. The session's host, Gregor Halff of Singapore Management U, has been invited to chair the panel. Panelists for the morning session include Dean Kruckeberg, who is well known in the field of global public relations and who serves as the current director of the Center for Global Public Relations at the U of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA), Dr. Marina Vujnovic of Monmouth U (USA), Richard Stanton of the U of Sydney (Australia), Katerina Tsetsura of the U of Oklahoma (USA), Chiara Valentini of Aarhus U (Denmark) and R.S. Zaharna of American U (USA).
The afternoon session will feature breakout sessions. Professor Kruckeberg and Marina Vujnovic will present their "organic model" of public relations, which focuses upon and is predicated upon the need for "community-building. The session will address the benefits of the model particularly for transnational corporations and their relationships with publics and will make specific recommendation for transnational corporations, NGOs and governments in cultures such as are found in the Pacific Rim/Southeast Asia.
A second breakout session will focus on the media in global public relations. Richard Stanton , who is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the U of Sydney, Australia and author of All News Is Local: The Failure of the Media to Reflect World Events in a Globalized Age (2007) will look at the impact of globalization on media relations and political communication . Katerina Tsetsura who is at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, U of Oklahoma, will discuss her current research on international and global strategic communication, global media and public relations ethics. She is currently collecting the data on media practices in the USA and around the world for a forthcoming book, Truth and Global Media Transparency.
A third breakout session looks at how governments communicate with publics in the global arena. Chiara Valentini of Aarhus U in Denmark looks at the European Union as a multicultural, multiethnical and multinational polity and its effort to create dialogue with its publics. R.S. Zaharna of the School of Communication at the American U in Washington, DC and author of Battles to Bridges: US Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy after 9/11 (2010) will present her research on the different global perspectives of public diplomacy, specifically, the assertive, associative, and harmonious approaches nations take in their communication with publics.
