Public relations has existed in Arab countries since the beginning of their culture. There are evidence, that around year 2000 B.C. circular handwritten on papers told Babylonian farmers, how to increase their crop yields - Same kind of bulletin was used by U.S. department of agriculture nearly 4000 years later.
Propaganda seems to be used also already in ancient time. Assyrians were first to use pictorial bulletin to tell about their victories and raise enthusiasm in their home front. Same kind of strategy were used by Egyptian pharaos. They raise their support and stregthenged their soldiers' morale by using propaganda speeches.
Arabs also copied "pr practises" from ancient creeks. Public forums and depates were highly valued stages, were speakers persuaded their listeners - Now-a-days that kind of PR- technique might be called a special event.
Later in history Arab nations were influenced by western model of pr. That happened in 1930s, when international oil company started to explore arabian desert. But this recent history of Arab PR-past I'll come later.....
(Culbertson, H.M. & Chen. N. (1996) International public relations: a comparative analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum associates Inc. New Jersey. [239-241]
written by: Kimmo
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I really like your blog, you've been able to combine the history with present development and you've added some contemporary examples. Keep on going!
ReplyDeleteI would like to see you discussing the relationship between PR and democracy: some argue, that true PR can only exist in democratic countries. But what does it really mean and is that true? Could one think that the field of communication - the public sphere - is just different with different laws and cultural restrictions - game rules - that the game play is a bit different around there? So I'd like to ask you to discuss democracy, PR and the Arab world.
"But this recent history of Arab PR-past I'll come later....." Can't wait to see it! :D
It's interesting to see that almost every blog has an entry discussing the history of PR before the emerge of the profession itself :)
ReplyDeleteTiiu has a good point: PR is basicly about communication and society. And humans tend to live in societies, so PR has been there for a looong time.
ReplyDeleteAnother question is, how long PR has been researched and managed.