Kara Alaimo came to Grand Valley to speak for the APR Speaker Series. Alaimo discussed Global public relations based on her experience working for the United Nations and the Obama Administration. Ethics is always a term associated with good PR practice but, I wasn’t sure how Alaimo’s lecture would apply to ethics. By the end of the lecture I came up with my own connection to ethics and global PR. Just how PR in the U.S. calls us to consider all publics and potential backlash, the same precautions are taken in each country based on the culture and belief systems in place. It would be easy to assume that the same strategies and messages that work in the U.S. also work in other countries but that's definitely not the case. Global PR teaches us to adapt our minds to fit the expectations of the country.
When people try to justify basic human rights, so many rhetorical questions are asked. If this is a human right, why isn't this one. Although those rhetorical questions provoke thought, I wanted to know the answer to what should be considered a human right and what shouldn’t be. The truth is, there isn't a universal answer to that just like there isn't a universal way of understanding the world.
The different human rights that are argued amongst a variety of individuals reminded me of the different cultures Alaimo discussed. She explained how different cultures seek truth through different mediums, how some things Americans do are considered rude, and how religious angles in advertisements and PR statements can be essential in some cultures whereas in America we try not to pigeon-hole a certain religion when we speak to the public. Alaimo started off by explaining the word “no” is not used in South Africa because it is considered disrespectful. Once the speaker learned this in her career she realized if she wanted to excel in Global PR she had to learn how to adapt communication strategies to accommodate different cultures.
There are certain minimal moral expectations for all countries/cultures like food, shelter, and medicine but there are different aspirational ideals for specific countries/cultures too. I’d like to think of these different aspirational ideals in various countries and cultures as the minority groups in America who constantly battle having the same rights as the person next to them. Whether its sexism, racism, etc., equal rights aren’t being achieved in today’s society therefore human rights policies are lacking. Alaimo asks us to consider the social expectations associated with specific countries. In America, it's a social expectation that its citizens can live in freedom. However, LGBTQ issues are challenged in our legislature which diminishes the human rights for that minority group. Are those individuals being robbed of their basic human and American rights? I think they are because they're not able to live in the same freedom as heterosexual beings.
An unethical issue Alaimo discussed based on her experience in Asian culture was the practice of Confucianism which taught citizens and business leaders that talking about a problem makes it worse; so, if you have a problem, don’t tell anyone. This is highly unethical to do in public relations. Our Public Relations Society of America’s code of ethics clearly states the importance of transparency to be an ethical practitioner. Alaimo brings up the melamine baby formula scandal that happened right before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The baby formula was accidentally poisoned with melamine but instead of the Chinese company informing its consumers immediately, they chose to quietly pull the formula off the shelf. Therefore, the customers who already purchased the formula didn’t know any better but to feed their children with it which, resulted in many infant deaths. This incident reminds me of the basic human right to be able to access information. This case wasn’t an issue of fake news, it was an issue of no news at all which goes to show the truth will always come out and big companies like that have a greater responsibility to protect the lives of their publics.
