Public Relations practitioners in the immediate future are going to face great cahllenges in understanding the emerging relationship between different cultures and still retaining their individual core culture. According to David. A. Victor, cultural retrenchment- the insistence on cultural differentiation- is a defence against being absorbed in to a global consumer identity. He expresses the trend of the consumer as wanting to retain their distinct culture in communication preferences and uniformity in consumer preferences. (Banks, 1995) This can be related to the concept of globalization of culture, in popular terms, the homogenity of culture in a global scale (Antony.D.King, 1991)
The turf war, in my opinion will occur between the globalization of culture and its fall out due to increase in need for individualism in culture. The people are now becoming atuned to the homogenous culture in the same society and the concept of globalization is growing. This phenomenon can be seen in the 'McDonaldization' around the world.
The next step, would be the completion of the circle where all the cultures will get differentiated like they existed before. Distinct in their own ways and have an unique identity.
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I agree the circle is turning back. I think the sense of 'coca-colonisation' and an increasing homogenity of culture is now decreasing. With the growing unpopularity of the US, I think that now it is seen that rather than other cultures wanting a wholesale adoption of this way of life, they are more likely to take on little bits of other cultures and meld them into their existing way of life, maintaining their own distinct cultural 'identity'. For PR practitioners, the challenge is to understand what drives and motivates different cultures and not have a 'one size, fits all' approach to campaigning in different countries, which can be fraught with danger.
I like your Quote of the Day , also since i have the same on my page. I really like the idea though of PR adopting culture , advertsisng has been doing it for ages. In fact the best of advertising is done when it appeals to 'local' though. remember 'Thanda matlab Coca-cola', so it's only fair that PR get a piece of this pie too.
PR is about tailoring the right messages to the appropriate audiences, culture included. In a society like the UK, particularly in metropolitan London, it can be difficult to do this effectively. So we assume what the majority want to hear and 90% of the time, practitioners get it right.
For years now we have been caught up in globalisation and its impacts. Its interesting that you've said that cultures will go back to what it was before. My opinion is that the public are more powerful than they think. As societies become connected through globalisation, they will do all it can to keep its identity and we have seen this happen with regional groupings like the EU.
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