This blog has now reached the end of the line.
Our presentation about PR in Arab countires is available online via SlideShare here.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The truth still remains a mystery
As my last post raised a lot of questions, I decided that I need to explore the subject of Arab women and PR a little deeper. With the help from one of our lovely readers (thank you Sanna) I was able to find an insightful article focusing on this subject.
The article with the title Women and Public Relations Education and Practice in the
United Arab Emirates is written by Creedon, Al-Khaja and Kruckeberg (1995) and it can be found on the internet for example here.
Altough the article is written more than a decade ago, it still succeeds in providing a useful overall view of the history of PR in the United Arab Emirates and also in clarifying the role of Arab females in public relations education and practice.
The article points out that the tradition of strict segregation of education by sex remains in force at some of the universities located in the region. The article also gives a rather practical explanation to the question why the PR program is allowed for women only – a very high percentage of women students select primary education which does not correspond with the nation’s employment needs. Therefore Emirati women can now choose to study a profession that has been defined by the government as one that can help meet the needs of UAE society.
Nice.
Written by: Elina
The article with the title Women and Public Relations Education and Practice in the
United Arab Emirates is written by Creedon, Al-Khaja and Kruckeberg (1995) and it can be found on the internet for example here.
Altough the article is written more than a decade ago, it still succeeds in providing a useful overall view of the history of PR in the United Arab Emirates and also in clarifying the role of Arab females in public relations education and practice.
The article points out that the tradition of strict segregation of education by sex remains in force at some of the universities located in the region. The article also gives a rather practical explanation to the question why the PR program is allowed for women only – a very high percentage of women students select primary education which does not correspond with the nation’s employment needs. Therefore Emirati women can now choose to study a profession that has been defined by the government as one that can help meet the needs of UAE society.
Nice.
Written by: Elina
Monday, November 23, 2009
Challenges of democracy
As I have read articles about the public relations in the Arab world, one thing has repeated in the texts: lack of democracy. It seems that democracy is a necessity to successful public relations.
Kirat (2005) says that "Public relations needs an atmosphere of freedom and democracy, a milieu where individuals are respected, freedom of expression is guaranteed and differences are respected, but unfortunately, a large number of Arab countries do not enjoy democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and a strong public opinion." But what do the most of the Arabs and Muslims think about democracy?
Althought the Arab world has a reputation of authoritarianism there is a lot of support for democracy. Tessler and Gao (2005) say that "the data from the most recent round of the World Values Survey (WVS), carried out between 1999 and 2002, reveal broad support for democracy among Arab men and women. So what seems to be the problem? Why the democracy is so hard to achieve after all? Could there be some better solutions how Western countries could help with this process?
Alon Ben-Meir (2006) says that "the Arab states have much in common - religion, language and history. " Due to this there are four core measures that can be pursued in the region to effect democratic reforms: pursue gradual changes, provide economic incentives, develop democratic institutions and reform educational system (Ben-Meir, 2006).
I agree with Ben-Meir that it is important to understand the cultural diffrences and respect them. If Western world wants to help the Arab world to achieve democracy, it must be made carefully and not by forcing the states to the same democracy models that we have here. I also think that the public relations can help the democracy process. Maybe there does not need to be democracy before there can be good public relations, maybe the good public relations could actually help to achieve the democracy? Can you image the power that PR professional can have?
(Please notice that even thought I have used quite old references about the situation of democracy in the Arab world, there have not actually been a lot of improvement. Please see the links below. There are two really interesting articles to this topic.)
Why democracy in the Arab World is a two edged sword?
Syrian Novelist Talks About Impediments to Greater Democracy in the Arab World
References
Ben-Meir, Alon (2006). Challenges to democracy in the Arab and Muslim World. The Political Quarterly. Vol. 77, No. 3, 328-333.
Tessler, Mark & Gao, Eleanor (2005). Gauging Arab Support for Democracy. Journal of Democracy. Vol. 16, No. 3, 83-97.
Kirat, Mohamed (2005). Public relations practice in the Arab World: A critical assessment. Public Relations Review. Vol.31, Issue 3, 323-332.
Written by: Satu-Maria
Kirat (2005) says that "Public relations needs an atmosphere of freedom and democracy, a milieu where individuals are respected, freedom of expression is guaranteed and differences are respected, but unfortunately, a large number of Arab countries do not enjoy democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and a strong public opinion." But what do the most of the Arabs and Muslims think about democracy?
Althought the Arab world has a reputation of authoritarianism there is a lot of support for democracy. Tessler and Gao (2005) say that "the data from the most recent round of the World Values Survey (WVS), carried out between 1999 and 2002, reveal broad support for democracy among Arab men and women. So what seems to be the problem? Why the democracy is so hard to achieve after all? Could there be some better solutions how Western countries could help with this process?
Alon Ben-Meir (2006) says that "the Arab states have much in common - religion, language and history. " Due to this there are four core measures that can be pursued in the region to effect democratic reforms: pursue gradual changes, provide economic incentives, develop democratic institutions and reform educational system (Ben-Meir, 2006).
I agree with Ben-Meir that it is important to understand the cultural diffrences and respect them. If Western world wants to help the Arab world to achieve democracy, it must be made carefully and not by forcing the states to the same democracy models that we have here. I also think that the public relations can help the democracy process. Maybe there does not need to be democracy before there can be good public relations, maybe the good public relations could actually help to achieve the democracy? Can you image the power that PR professional can have?
(Please notice that even thought I have used quite old references about the situation of democracy in the Arab world, there have not actually been a lot of improvement. Please see the links below. There are two really interesting articles to this topic.)
Why democracy in the Arab World is a two edged sword?
Syrian Novelist Talks About Impediments to Greater Democracy in the Arab World
References
Ben-Meir, Alon (2006). Challenges to democracy in the Arab and Muslim World. The Political Quarterly. Vol. 77, No. 3, 328-333.
Tessler, Mark & Gao, Eleanor (2005). Gauging Arab Support for Democracy. Journal of Democracy. Vol. 16, No. 3, 83-97.
Kirat, Mohamed (2005). Public relations practice in the Arab World: A critical assessment. Public Relations Review. Vol.31, Issue 3, 323-332.
Written by: Satu-Maria
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Noire Darwish, Great example of PR
A Really good example of International PR of Arabic Countries.
Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American human rights activist, scholar of Islam, and founder of Arabs For Israel. Darwish's speech topics cover human rights, with emphasis on women's rights and minority rights in the Middle East. She is the director of Former Muslims United.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1KBagC9020
By Jorge
Nonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American human rights activist, scholar of Islam, and founder of Arabs For Israel. Darwish's speech topics cover human rights, with emphasis on women's rights and minority rights in the Middle East. She is the director of Former Muslims United.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1KBagC9020
By Jorge
Thursday, November 19, 2009
studying PR and professionalism of PR - viewpoint to PR's position in Arab today
I'll try to give you now few elements, witch define the condition of PR in Arab today.
According to Rizk, PR is used in Arabian countries to act namely between organizations and publics. So I think that tells much of how organizations use PR: to them it is widely accepted tool of gain more power. Managers want PR to legitimate their actions, what ever they do. Rizk also points out that PR students and the whole science in arab countries is already given a new dimension to PR (like respect between public and organization) but it also needs time to spread.
According to Rizk, PR is used in Arabian countries to act namely between organizations and publics. So I think that tells much of how organizations use PR: to them it is widely accepted tool of gain more power. Managers want PR to legitimate their actions, what ever they do. Rizk also points out that PR students and the whole science in arab countries is already given a new dimension to PR (like respect between public and organization) but it also needs time to spread.
(Rizk, A. 2005. Future of Public Relations in United Arab Emirates institutions. Public Relations review. (volume 31))
Another view is given by Barry, who says PR in Arab is suffering from lack of practical methods and Arabic textbooks are out dated. Pr is still seen as pursuit of publicity. PR professionals are also writing news releases and coordinating special events, but strategic planning is missing!
(Barry, W.I.A. 2005. Teaching public relations in the information age: A case study of Egyptian university. Public Relations review. (volume 31))
Mohammed Kirat presents PR in arab still seen as tool for organizations to raise their image, but also tool of propaganda (in a bad way) and a tool for publicity. He also points out that Pr is seen as sharing public information and most of Arab PR limits to Grunig's first model. PR also suffers from stage of democracy: It means that PR won't be able to work correctly, because of lack of individual rights and lack of individual freedom itself.
Kirat points out many elements that are missing from the field of PR:
-lack of correct understanding and preciation of PR
-lack of resourses given to PR
-lack of strategies and absence of vision
-lack of professional manpower
-lack of organization's manager's right attitude towards PR and their interests on public feedpack
-lack of manager's right attitude also means that PR professionals has only small role in participating in decision-making
-lack of manager's right attitude also means that PR professionals has only small role in participating in decision-making
(Kirat, M. 2005. Public Relations practice in the Arab world: A critical assessment. Public relations review. (volume 31))
wrote: Kimmo
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Private: for girls only
After finding the website of MEPRA, I was eager to find more information concerning Middle-Eastern private PR agencies. The number of private sector agencies practising PR in the United Arab Emirates has grown significantly over the past decade. According to MEPRA data, there are over 22 private national and multinational PR agencies in the country.
Although the Arab world is considered to be one of the fastest-growing market in the world for PR business there are no clear demarcations between the roles of advertising and PR. In fact, the PR agencies in the UEA are primarily advertising agencies with PR functions and they carry out public relations within marketing activities. A survey of public relations programs in public and private organizations in the UEA showed that none of the private organizations in the UEA actually used the term ‘public relations’ in order to describe relations with external publics. In some cases, it was referred to as ‘external communication,’ ‘external relations,’ or even ‘marketing.’
As an aside, I would like to add that although the nature of PR in the Arab world is often described as somewhat vague, in recent years PR has become a popular subject of academic study in almost all UAE universities. For example universities in Abu Dhabi and in Sharjah provide a bachelor degree program in public relations and communication. In Abu Dhabi the program is available for female students only, though.
Reference: Ayish, Muhammad I. (2005) Virtual public relations in the United Arab Emirates: A case study of 20 UAE organizations’ use of the Internet
Written by: Elina
Although the Arab world is considered to be one of the fastest-growing market in the world for PR business there are no clear demarcations between the roles of advertising and PR. In fact, the PR agencies in the UEA are primarily advertising agencies with PR functions and they carry out public relations within marketing activities. A survey of public relations programs in public and private organizations in the UEA showed that none of the private organizations in the UEA actually used the term ‘public relations’ in order to describe relations with external publics. In some cases, it was referred to as ‘external communication,’ ‘external relations,’ or even ‘marketing.’
As an aside, I would like to add that although the nature of PR in the Arab world is often described as somewhat vague, in recent years PR has become a popular subject of academic study in almost all UAE universities. For example universities in Abu Dhabi and in Sharjah provide a bachelor degree program in public relations and communication. In Abu Dhabi the program is available for female students only, though.
Reference: Ayish, Muhammad I. (2005) Virtual public relations in the United Arab Emirates: A case study of 20 UAE organizations’ use of the Internet
Written by: Elina
Monday, November 16, 2009
Challenges for Arab and American PR
There are lot of challenges for Arab and American public relations and public diplomacy. Ray Eldon Hiebert (2005) says that "both Arabs and Americans have developed negative opinions about each other, increasing the need for good public relations and public diplomacy between the two publics". This kind of situation where people have build up one-sided views and strong emotions, is a challenge for the public relations professionals.
"Misperceptions are particular problem in an age of global mass communication and this is a challenge that confronts both Arabs and Americans. Mass media offers us images of reality and often those images are skewed, sometimes deliberately but more often accidentally by cultural differences and the demands of rapid mass communication. Public relations provides a method of adjusting those images and perceptions". (Hiebert 2005.)
Hiebert (2005) emphasizes that even thought in America democracy is supposed to provide equality for all points of views for all races, religions and political persuasions, in reality everyone is scrambling to be heard and some voices are louder than others. He says that "we like to think that public relations can equalize the field because it provides a relatively easy and inexpensive way to be heard and to make a difference."
I think that we can all learn something from this example. It would be important that public relations professionals would listen each other and to be active in the "battle" with mass media. I believe that public relations can be effective tool to repair skewed images and to enrich the information we are receiving.
Reference: Hiebert, Ray Eldon. (2005). Commentary: Challenges for Arab and American public relations and public diplomacy in a global age. Public Relations Review. Vol.31 Issue 3, 317-322
Written by: Satu-Maria
"Misperceptions are particular problem in an age of global mass communication and this is a challenge that confronts both Arabs and Americans. Mass media offers us images of reality and often those images are skewed, sometimes deliberately but more often accidentally by cultural differences and the demands of rapid mass communication. Public relations provides a method of adjusting those images and perceptions". (Hiebert 2005.)
Hiebert (2005) emphasizes that even thought in America democracy is supposed to provide equality for all points of views for all races, religions and political persuasions, in reality everyone is scrambling to be heard and some voices are louder than others. He says that "we like to think that public relations can equalize the field because it provides a relatively easy and inexpensive way to be heard and to make a difference."
I think that we can all learn something from this example. It would be important that public relations professionals would listen each other and to be active in the "battle" with mass media. I believe that public relations can be effective tool to repair skewed images and to enrich the information we are receiving.
Reference: Hiebert, Ray Eldon. (2005). Commentary: Challenges for Arab and American public relations and public diplomacy in a global age. Public Relations Review. Vol.31 Issue 3, 317-322
Written by: Satu-Maria
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