All roads lead to public relations...

Hello everybody, welcome back. This week we will be discussing public affairs and diplomacy. How do public relations coincide with public diplomacy?

I want to start this off by being quite frank by saying I had no clue what public affairs or public diplomacy were before reading the articles for this week. In fact, I had to look up the differences online. I didn't get much of an answer from a vague Google search so I decided to differentiate these two concepts from what I understand of public relations. Public relations is seen as having an "agency role" where a person works with a firm or organization to build relationships with various publics. 

Public affairs are somewhat parallel to PR in the sense that the function is the same, but the role is slightly skewed to involve disseminating propaganda and messaging to the public (citizens). This person would also typically work for a governmental body. The difference between public affairs and public diplomacy is one is focused on lobbying and legislation (public affairs) while the other focuses on communicating with foreign publics (public diplomacy). Public diplomacy can be seen as visitor programs, educational exchange programs, cultural events, etc. Public affairs involve a lot of politics and persuading government officials.

In my opinion, all of these terms tend to blend making it hard to determine any distinction between them. Nevertheless, I will begin my discussion over the articles for this week.

The first article for this week, 'Certain Theoretical And Legal Aspects Of Citizen Participation In The Management Of Public Affairs' was written by Daria Yaitska. This article was interesting because it provided us with a viewpoint from Ukraine. One of the key points I took from this article was "democracy obliges the state to create conditions for citizens to exercise their right to participate in all stages of socially significant decisions." She continues by saying the development of a democratic state is impossible without its citizens involved in the government process, i.e. voting. Another point I thought was important was "the level of public confidence in the state as a whole plays a significant role in building relations between the active public and public authorities." This is evident in various social issues, such as police corruption, our broken justice system, and the election of corrupted public officials. Yaitska states that the solution is through the promotion of forms of participation in management and increased transparency of the state.

The second article of the week, 'The role of public relations in corporate diplomacy: how relationship cultivation increases organizational legitimacy' written by Marschlich and Ingenhoff examines how MNCs develop corporate diplomacy by utilizing PR to respond to societal expectations, leading to what is referred to as organizational legitimacy. Organizational legitimacy is defined as "the perception of a group concerning the appropriateness and desirability of organizational behavior" (Suchman, 1995). The authors further explain various forms of organizational legitimacy: moral legitimacy, pragmatic legitimacy, regulative legitimacy, and cultural-cognitive legitimacy. This article in my opinion signifies the need for CSR (corporate social responsibility) which lends itself to public relations.

'The Convergence of Public Relations and Public Diplomacy' written by Robert E. Brown, speaks to how public relations and public affairs are merging. He states that they have always been similar to each other and follows with reflections on their likeness.

• Both PR and PD are creatures of rhetoric.
• A river runs through them: the river of public opinion.
• PR and PD are particularly constructed to address complex issues.
• PR and PD are not so much about communication as they are about drama.
• Communication is not a sufficient answer to address the realities faced by PR and PD.
• In much writing about public relations and public diplomacy, Human rationality has been overemphasized.
• Public Relations is the propagation of awe.
• The conventional wisdom that public relations and public diplomacy should steer clear of drama and focus on engagement and conversation is misleading.
• We are living in an age of crisis.
• Given our hungry and paradoxical human nature, the powerful trend called convergence actually does hold a great deal of promise.

In 'Relationship Cultivation in Public Diplomacy: A Qualitative Study of Relational Antecedents and Cultivation Strategies' by Leysan Storie, she confirms that "political PR and public diplomacy both focus on managing communication to build and maintain relationships for a political purpose." However, "public diplomacy focuses on foreign publics and involves governments and organizations seeking to build relationships internationally." So with this definition, I conclude that the line between public relations and public diplomacy has blurred to the point of no distinction. And all roads lead to back to public relations...