Textbook Chapter 13

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Thirteen - Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

This chapter is different from the previous ones as it has narrowed down to the framework of public relations in Asia. It explores how public relations is shaped and applied in the countries that comprise the region, and provide various aspects that are being applied to different locations. I realized that there is no universal code of practice in the profession of public relations and different countries have different barriers and culture to follow. Therefore, this explains why some countries choose to differ their way of operations from the western style.

In this chapter, it mentioned a point that I would like to elaborate on: public relations in Asia mainly focuses on relationship building and framing. This means that public relations practitioners have to think about the issue or event of concern in a particular angle such that they could frame such ideologies within a certain framework. I feel that this point could be explained with the recent earthquake tragedy at Japan where the government had to deal with several public enquiries on the situation and their measures to improve the situation. In such circumstances, it is important the public relations practitioners understand the ideological positions of the government so the frame they build around the issue or event matches the agenda embedded within the ideology. At the same time, this also highlights the need for public relations practitioners to constantly consider the objectives of their clients before they set out the framework of their strategies.

This chapter also highlighted that trade is an important factor in Asia that led to the importance of public relations in the region. It was mentioned that trade is especially important not just in Asia as it is a factor used to determine a country's economic wellbeing. Let's use the Japan earthquake for instance, the nuclear crisis has led to concerns over the issue of radioactive iodine and caesium in various food products. Such consequences meant that trade would decline in Japan as there would be less demand for their exports and this would in turn result in a fall in the economic growth. Therefore, the process of framing the government's ideologies about health concerns has to be strategized in the best manner possible to ensure that minimal damage is done to the country's development.