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Expanding the World of Public Relations

The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research, and Practice (Expanded and Revised Edition), by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic, Editors. New York: Routledge, 2009. ISBN 978-0-415-99514-6. 951pp.

Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic moved our understanding of global public relations forward when their first edition of The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research, and Practice came out in 2003. The first edition included a theoretical framework to provide direction for scholars and practitioners, as well as several internationally focused chapters in the final section. The focus was clearly on the systematic review of the history and status of the public relations profession in several areas of the world by examining public relations practices, professionalism, education, challenges, and strategic management in as many countries as the editors had contacts they could recruit to write the chapters. While many of the authors were trained in the United States, the perspectives offered are grounded in their understanding of the given country’s culture as attained through lived experience as a researcher or practitioner in what is, in most cases, their home country. The expanded edition adds an additional fourteen country-specific chapters to this collection, including excellent contributions on African and South American countries. Truly, the coordination of the anthology across the globe is impressive in itself.

Focusing on one country, in most cases, individually in each chapter provides depth that could not be achieved by analyzing themes across countries. The quality of the chapters varies widely, but Sriramesh and Vercic’s decision to have the authors follow a similar format does allow the reader to gain some insight on the status of public relations as a profession in every chapter. For a public relations researcher examining a phenomenon in a specific part of the world or a practitioner about to embark on an expansion to one of the countries covered, The Global Public Relations Handbook can serve as a helpful resource.

Also new in the expanded edition are additions to the conceptual framework of global public relations including chapters on political economy, culture, mass media, and activism. The concluding section on key dimensions of international public relations was expanded to include chapters on public diplomacy and the United Nations. These additions make the handbook more than just a resource book for researchers and practitioners. They add to our understanding of the multifaceted world of global public relations. These additions also provide content for essential discussion in international or intercultural communication or public relations classes.

What is missing is a thorough examination of public relations ethics. A few of the country-specific chapters include short sections on ethics. However, even in the conceptual framework, ethical conundrums are only passively mentioned in culturally based practices like guanxi and media bribery. And, in fact, in the intertwining of organizational culture with societal culture the handbook appears to advocate for culture as an excuse for following local practices that may be considered questionable in other parts of the world. The editors admonish research on public relations values for not including enough discussion of culture, and yet, the extensive discussion of culture in this handbook relegates the discussion of values and ethics only within specific cultures. While the practice of public relations may have intricacies country to country, should a global organization adjust their ethical groundings country to country simply because the local culture allows the practice in question?

Even with the omission of ethics, the biggest disappointment of the expanded and revised edition is that it is expanded, but not revised. A total of 387 pages were added to The Global Public Relations Handbook: Theory, Research, and Practice, and most of those additions truly added value to the handbook. However, other than the removal and replacement of a chapter on public relations agencies, the pre-existing chapters were largely unchanged. Considering the extensive technological, economical, and governmental changes that have occurred in the last six years in some of the countries examined, to not even provide an update to the chapters keeps much of the handbook still dated in 2003. Even Sriramesh’s epilogue on The Missing Link: Multiculturalism and Public Relations Education is unchanged, and that was adapted from a journal article published in 2002. So, seven years after calling for an increase in the “multicultural body of knowledge of public relations” (p. 922), the editors seemingly have not noticed enough of a change to warrant revisions from their authors’ original assertions.

As a resource for public relations researchers and practitioners, The Global Public Relations Handbook is worth the space on bookshelf. If you are looking only for information on a country covered in the first edition, the 2003 handbook is sufficient. However, if professors are considering The Global Public Relations Handbook for an international or intercultural communication or public relations class, the additions made to the conceptual framework and expansion of countries covered make the new edition well worth the upgrade.