Socio-Cultural Turn in Public Relations Scholarship - Essay Example

? Socio-Cultural Turn in Public Relations Scholarship Socio-cultural turn in public relations scholarship Introduction Public relations forms an important aspect in almost every human undertaking be it at corporate, public, or individual level. It entails the constant exercise of taking control of all the relevant information circulating between the public, organization, and even the public in general. In this scenario, the audiences involved receive information on subjects that are of interest to the public without necessarily offering direct incentives1. Through public relations, information and messages pass from institutions to other institutions or individuals with the aim of educating the receiver of these messages. Corporates normally manage such information in such platforms as conferences, winning industry awards, and employee communication with the main objective of persuading all the stakeholders to accept and believe in certain perspectives2. Employees, partners, investors, and the public may be the audiences involved in managing information pertaining to political decisions, leadership styles, and the commodities. Public relations enable an organization to create strategies that will enable it to meet its objectives and to be more effective in the market. This efficiency is vital because of the monetary value that comes along3. Public relations scholarship Over the years, many corporates have utilized public relation scholarship as a tool of enhancing their organizational performance whereby they direct the outcomes of this research to further their organizational goals and processes. Due to this fact, the social world has not had its fair share of this research as far as public relations are concerned4. It is a well-known fact that organizations do operate in the social world full of cultural diversity and any communication or decision that does not take into account the interests of the socio-cultural dimension is ineffective. This is because such public relations may not go down well with a section of persons in the social scene5. Public relations scholarship has in turn taken a new dimension to meet the emerging interests by the society and culture. It has become evident that public relations scholarship cannot be the reserve of organizations alone but ought to incorporate such aspect of life as anthropology, storytelling, cultural studies, and pragmatism as a whole6. These methodological approaches encompass both the practical and the theoretical aspects of various disciplines ranging from post-colonial life, sociology, political economy, cultural, and ecological studies7. Recent studies have proved that when scholars engage in the new ways of public relations like extracting interviews especially from those who specialize in that particular field, they tend to expand their communication insight and gain more inspiration8. This enables them to face the social world with confidence and a new perspective of handling diverse personalities as these also, exist in the world where organizations operate. In the face of multiple communication channels and strategies, it has become apparent that public relations and public relations scholarship should not suffer constraints and limits. This extends to the fact that currently organizations are the only institutions that get the recognition of managing their affairs as far as public relations are concerned9. Public relations culture and infrastructure Public relations, when viewed from the cultural perspective, must pay due attention to the general as well as the specific territorial aspects of the culture. The main components of the territorial infrastructure of the public relations are the civil society, the political and economic system, the media system, and the socio-cultural system10. Both culture and public relations are a function of the existence of human beings in that the man is the originator of culture and creator public relations therefore the two can work better if man incorporates them to work in a synchronised manner. Since PR resembles culture turned inside out, thus it ought not to be unconnected from culture, but instead endeavour to understand and utilize culture in a constructive manner. Socio-cultural turn Over the past half a century, Public relations scholarship especially concerning media and mass communication has experienced tremendous growth and expansion, the main trigger being the unprecedented innovations and dynamism within the sector. With many more scholars and researchers increasingly gaining interest in the broad perspective of public relations, the scholars have questioned the wisdom behind limiting public relations to organizations. This has been the trend in many s aspects of the society11. Some crucial facets of public relations do not get the critical attention that they deserve despite their significant contribution to the subject matter. Incorporation of many more dimensions of public relations concerning the socio-cultural aspects have taken effect in the recent past to the extent that the public relations scholarship has experienced a paradigm shift. The need to include the society has necessitated the revisit of public relations as a subject with the view of adding more value, quality, and content to the much-overlooked topic12. In the twentieth century especially before 1980, most public relations scholars specialized only in unilateral disciplines, which more or less related to their main careers. For instance, while researchers in the faculty of humanities pursued their majors in fields like arts and culture, and the use of language in expressing the perceptions of persons, some chose to study philosophy, one of the significant career lines as far as public relations is concerned. The single-sided approach saw many social scientists focus on how media institutions relate to other non-political organizations. It was after the 1980s that the media fraternity experienced the ‘cultural turn’ that saw many scholars divert their focus from the mainstream public relations agenda that mostly involved institutions and the public to more specific areas like enhancing and promoting cultural development13. Culture plays a major role in the moral and political development of every society. Since every society is in possession of unique culture, it is encouraging to incorporate all these in the media so that the media content is rich in terms of cultural diversity14. Cultural turn started as a movement by social scientists whose main objective was to take cultural scholarship to the next level. The scholars defined culture as the social process through which human beings communicate, construct, and realizes their world, identities and value. Culture has experienced tremendous expansion over the last few decades and become more liberal unlike in the past when the media used to stick only to the old ways of doing things15. Considering the media, various cultural phenomena have found themselves in especially in the entertainment industry that blends different lifestyles without any discrimination and fear of contradiction. This came because of the need to adapt to the emerging and rapidly changing lifestyles and the dynamic nature of the world that was increasingly becoming a global market place. In the past, the focus was on how to convey the specific information from the media houses to the public without paying tribute to the cultural diversity of their audiences. Several members of the public, especially those endowed with cultural talent; felt that their precious commodity and service was going to waste due to negligence by the media16. All these combined prompted a section of the researchers and scholars in the media to rethink their strategies. They came up with such recommendations as enrich the media by cultural information to appeal more to the conservatives and the socialites17. Fortunately, this cultural turn has been a success since its inception as the media fully utilizes its potential of making cultural information more sensible and palatable to its consumers, that is, the diverse audiences18. The Impact of socio-cultural turn in public relations scholarship Currently, public relations scholars have diversified and extended their concentration in the cultural perspective thereby enhancing the multicultural effect of the global society. This course has attained enormous popularity and receive widespread acknowledgement making the public relations scholars who were the pioneer such projects to be proud of their achievement. Before the past two decades, many social scientists were of the opinion that culture in general was an outlier that did not mean much as far as the development of public relations and the enhancement of social life are concerned19. However, after the shift, the world has seen incredible advancements in the management of public relations especially from the dimension of social and cultural aspects. This has in turn had a number of effects on the way information and communication passes across particularly with rapidly advancing technology across the globe20. With the introduction of internet technology and the prevalence of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, public relations scholars have taken a new trajectory as concerns the public relations research. Nowadays, virtually every person is a micro media house courtesy of the internet and the social media platforms21. Both general and sensitive information can pass through between individuals without necessarily passing through the mainstream media houses. This has necessitated investigation by the scholars as to whether mild regulations can limit the extent of abuse of the social media. By adopting and embracing social media and the internet in general, the public has taken a socio-cultural turn that seeks to perpetuate their feelings, desires, and opinions very easily22. Many social scientists have made same recommendations requiring the media to adopt same innovation in order to keep abreast with the interests of the public. Luckily, several media houses have adopted the same technology and won over public interests and confidence. It is evident that the use of social media in the twenty first century has become a culture in itself. Impact on the economy The social and cultural movement has changed the method and instruments of research in the public relations sector considering the economic boost the public relations sector has amassed23. Although some scholars in the social sciences do not agree as to whether the socio-cultural turn has affected the economy adversely or constructively, most public relations scholars unanimously agree that indeed, the socio-cultural turn has done more good. This is especially noticeable in the rapid expansion of economies of many nations that have experienced the paradigm shift in terms of the social and cultural lifestyles of their citizens. Public relation scholars have diversified into disciplines like political science, equality and recognition, ethnicity and gender, and cultural studies24. In conclusion, the socio-cultural turn in the public relations scholarship has seen the introduction of new disciplines and phenomena that never existed before. Several aspects of human life have significantly changed because of this ‘movement’ that is gradual but never ending. Going by the current trends in research of matters concerning public relations, credible projections predict more shifts in PR scholarships in the new future25 Bibliography Bardhan, Nilanjana, and Weaver C. Kay. Public Relations in Global Cultural Contexts: Multi-Paradigmatic Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2011. Edwards, Lee, and Hodges Caroline. Public Relations, Society and Culture: Theoretical and Empirical Explorations. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011. Kirschner, Suzanne , and Jack Martin. The Sociocultural Turn in Psychology: The Contextual Emergence of Mind and Self. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Lobman, Carrie. Play and Performance. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group, 2011. Read More