International Communications Strategy: Developments in Cross‐cultural Communications, PR and Social Media

Citation

Young, P. (2010), "International Communications Strategy: Developments in Cross‐cultural Communications, PR and Social Media", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 388-390. https://doi.org/10.1108/13632541011090473

Our world is both shrinking and expanding at a seemingly ever‐quickening pace. As we live increasingly online, distance and time belong to history, and geography ceases to matter.

But the same forces that shrink the world are fuelling a new diversity. Our economic maps are being ripped apart as far‐flung nations become powerful players in a fluid and dynamic global elite.

Writers Silvia Cambié and Yang‐May Ooi see the rise of the internet and of globalisation as two intrinsically linked developments, and argue persuasively that the radical transformations brought by these twin revolutions demand new approaches to international communications strategy.

They recognise that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and that at a macro‐level business has no boundaries, but have a keen eye for the myriad of cultural differences that are, if anything, brought into sharper focus by globalisation.

The economic upheavals run alongside demographic shifts. For example, the authors suggest that as sixty percent of people in the Arab world are under 25 (p. 11), social media and other web communications are likely to play a major role in the way they perceive the world and share information, creating a world view realised through a mixture of local values and imported technologies.

Having made this connection between twenty‐first century geo‐politics and online communications Cambié and Ooi make the rather timid and even self‐defeating decision to split their book into two parts.

Thus part one looks at international communications, focusing on the rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China and identifying the socio‐economic forces, hierarchies and cultural beliefs on which their business models are built. This is an environment shaped by the launch in India of the Tato Nano, the world's cheapest car, or the acceptance in Brazil of deodorants, thereby opening markets almost unheard of 30 years ago.

They suggest, for example, that China, a nation “used to dealing with ambiguity, with problems like political corruption, environmental degradation, violation of human rights and rural poverty (p. 5)”, may be better placed than fading Western powers when engaging with emergent African systems.

Certainly they believe that navigating these swirling and tempestuous cross‐cultural borders requires a new style of management, and a flexibility lacking from the twentieth century (and pre‐digital) mindset. Thus a multinational rising from an emerging country where businesses are owned or controlled by families will demand communicators skilled in storytelling, and relating history and values.

Such environments demand “a new attitude of borderlessness...(where) you will be asked to suspend your identity as a citizen of a country or an employee of a corporation (p. 13).”

Here, the ability to produce annual reports, or organise press conferences fades in importance, superseded by skills such as deciphering environments or building relationships with selected audiences in which “cultural sensibility” and “cultural proficiency” will be key, and “communications functions will become a meeting point for all the cultures represented in an organisation”.

Unfortunately, Cambié and Ooi's book is not really about international communications strategy, but is more a cultural travelogue and springboard for new thinking. Throughout, their style is highly anecdotal, “Someone told us a great story … ”which is entertaining but rather unsatisfying. The book's strengths and weaknesses can be summed up by a section, “Social media as part of life”, in which they admit – unsurprisingly! – “We cannot hope to give a full account of 170 million blogs …”

So they highlight eight.

This is a harsh criticism, but the authors struggle to construct unifying conclusions from cherry‐picked examples. It is a huge challenge but if you are writing about communications strategy rather than collecting snapshot case studies it is one that has to be tackled.

Part two is basically a conventional trot through the basics of social media and given a broad geographic perspective. For example, they describe Weber Shandwick China's Absolute Baby campaign for Pampers, which “used blogs to capitalise on strong emotional investment parents have in one child family” (p. 28) and is an interesting study but it is by no means clear what marked it out as uniquely Chinese. How did local, cross‐cultural understanding and sensibility inform its success? To what extent did the strategy resonate with the “collectivist mentality” mentioned later? “Where Westerners see individuals, Asians, and in particular Chinese, are more likely to see contexts and relationships (p. 204).

Overall, their account is rather piecemeal and their understanding of the implications of social media seems underdeveloped; certainly it has been done better elsewhere. That said, many of the non‐US/UK examples are fascinating and compelling. It is hard to imagine anyone not learning something new.

Many readers will be disappointed by a continuing reluctance to clearly define key terms. For example, in the Preface they say “We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to add our voices to the global debate on the transformation of communication in the era 3.0.” Well, yes, but what exactly is “era 3.0”?

Four pages on, they are quoting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on “Globalisation 3.0”. Again, but what is it?

This lack of academic rigour shows through in the referencing. Critics may debate the merits of Wikipedia, but even its champions must agree that you simply cannot cite it as a source for key definitions without including the date accessed (pp. 40‐41).

Likewise, broad claims need justification. Not everyone would agree that corporate social responsibility “is a product of globalisation” (p. 39); if that is the thesis it must have some substantiation. Yes, as the chapter argues, in order for an organisation to engage with communities it must understand them, but it is hard to build on this position from a rather loose conception of the nature and purpose of CSR.

The extent to which a reader will appreciate Cambié and Ooi's work may be characterised by responses to a consideration of the “Dawn of leadership communication”: “When we sit down and think about the leader of the future, an image begins to form in our minds – that of an avatar, a three‐dimensional being with highly developed sensibility able to tune into different cultural models and to connect with employees at a deeper level (p. 63).”

Of course, a review that criticises this style of delivery is merely privileging a certain cultural mindset, and almost unwittingly allows one particular conception of the correct conventions for a textbook on communications to obscure insights derived from Cambié and Ooi's conversational approach. Any work that challenges the reader to rethink, re‐examine and reconsider prejudices and preconceptions about the “right” way to engage with the new world order of globalisation and online social media is very much to be welcomed.

About the reviewer

Philip Young is a senior lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland, specialising in ethics and the impact of social media on PR practice. He is co‐author with David Phillips of Online Public Relations, 2nd ed (Kogan Page, 2009) and runs the Mediations blog, http://publicsphere.typepad.com/mediations.