Media and Strategies of Communicating with

International Publics
Present By DR. Noha Sami
Introduction
An international public relations practitioner must engage in effective communication with his
or her publics and this can be done through international media. It is not just enough to select
the media to be used to reach out to the international publics; there is also the need to use
the most effective media and strategy that can best deliver the message. This implies that the
international public relations practitioner must know which medium is the right one to be
used in reaching out to the international publics.

reaching out to foreign publics can be fairly difficult and as most practitioners are already
aware, communication is seriously affected by culture, beliefs, norms, political systems and
religion; whether there is a fairly difficult task of communicating with the international publics
or not, there are different media of communicating with the international publics; they are,
but not limited to:
1. International Exhibitions: It has to do with various producers or manufacturers coming
together and showcasing their products. Some exhibitions are cheaper, depending on the
quality of the production. The main aim of exhibition and trade fair is to develop the
corporate identity of a company. Thus, trade fairs and exhibitions are designed to
establish corporate identities and also enable target publics to have access to the works
and products of an organization. Through this media, an ignorant public becomes
educated and can, therefore, understand and appreciate the organization to the extent
that rational decision and choice can be made.
2. Letters: Letters can be written to those who are relevant to the organization in order to
maintain relationship with them. This letter could be formal or informal. The whole
essence is to inform, educate and enlighten their publics, in order to keep the relationship
going.
3. The Flags: Most countries are recognized by their flags. So also, any organization at the
international level must have a definite flag through which the publics can easily
recognize it.
4. Annual Report: An annual report is a comprehensive report on a company's activities
throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other
interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance.
They may be considered grey literature. Most jurisdictions require companies to prepare
and disclose annual reports and many require the annual report to be filed at the
company's registry. Companies listed on a stock exchange are also required to report at
more frequent intervals, depending on the rules of the Stock Exchange involved. It helps to
put an organization's performance within a given period, usually within a period of one
year, in perspective. The report is usually specific in stating the organization's aims and
objectives, functions, programs, yearly accounts, profits and liabilities, as well as, the
problem and prospects of the organization.
5. Radio and Television: International radio and television are very good media of
communicating with international publics. One good thing about the international radio
and television is that they can reach people in different parts of the globe. These
electronic media cover the entire globe; thus, international public relations practitioners
can use them to reach international publics. On radio and television, the international
public relations man can produce documentaries to showcase his organization to the
publics. It may also be through interview or through corporate advertising.

6. International Newspapers and Magazines: Important information can be communicated

to the international publics, using newspapers and magazines. These channels can also
reach a very large audience. However, the major disadvantage is that the illiterates cannot
be reached with newspapers and magazines. The international public relations expert can
write articles to explain some development in his or her organization or produce news to
explain the policies, philosophies, prospects and challenges in his organization.
7. House Journals: Both the internal and external house journals are good media of reaching
international publics. With your house journals, you can reach both the internal and
external publics. In using the house journals, the external publics are carefully selected and
given house journals, which may contain vital information and activities of the organization.
The house journal contains vital information about the policies, programs, activities, etc. of
the organization. The house journal is also to enable the employees and the select external
publics to have a better understanding of the organization. This type of journal is published
by organizations to keep their internal and external publics informed about developments. It
could be a monthly, bi-monthly, yearly or quarterly publication, depending on the available
fund for it. Employees at various levels are given opportunity to air their views through this
journal. If your journal is outdated, there is the need to update it. This is because you must
maintain mutual understanding between your organization and its numerous publics as a
public relations executive.
8. News Release: It is mostly used by organizations to keep the publics informed of their
activities, especially when new services and products are being introduced and
sometimes, to announce important events. Information that is communicated as a part of
the regular television and radio program, newspapers, magazines and other types of
mainstream media achieves a much bigger impact than advertisements. This is due to the
fact that most people consider such information more trustworthy and meaningful than
paid advertisements. Press release is, therefore, one of the oldest and most effective
public relations tools. the following guidelines for packaging news release:
a. Develop your writing skill, draft, redraft, edit, polish and perfect the copy. Read
publications and understand what makes news and how it is put together. Analyze the
writing skills of good journalists. Understand the good and criticize the bad. Develop the
abilities to sieve information.
b. Always ask, who, what, why, where, when and how? And be sure that questions are
answered in every news story. Train yourself to eliminate as determinedly as you add. If
material does not answer any of these questions, what is it doing in your story?
c. Write stories to suite the house style of the publication. If for practical reasons, your story
has to get to a wider range of media, always draft it in the style to suit the most popular of
these. Better still, produce different stories for different types of news outlets.
d. Always keep the copy tight, concise and factual; never forge an issue or create a misleading
impression. Be certain of the facts.
e. Substantiate any claim. Separate facts from beliefs by putting the latter into 'quotes.’
f. Write the story from the point of the journalist. Although, it is a statement from your
organization, it should be presented so that it can be used directly in the publication with the
minimum of editing. Comments, observations or speculative information can only be included
in a story, in quotes or as footnotes.
g. Get the main news point into the first paragraph and preferably, the first sentence. Organize
the paragraphs so that the most newsworthy are at the top. This usually allows the journalist
to edit from the bottom. The paragraphs you can most easily afford to lose, therefore, should
be the ones towards the end of the story.
h. Keep sentences short. Use positive and not negative statements. Use active verbs. Avoid
inverted clauses and cut out any subjective material of superlatives. Keep separate points in
separate sentences, but with continuity. Break each collection of points into separate
paragraphs.
i. Put the copy into modern journalistic styles. Eliminate any old-fashioned phrases, formal
or pompous languages, jargon peculiar to the industry, clichés or colloquialisms that are not
accepted as Standard English or appropriate language.
j. When you have written your story, check through and make sure that it meets all the
criteria mentioned above. In particular, be certain that the news is at the beginning. Often,
good news releases cannot afford to have the first paragraph taken out!
k. Go through your copy, tighten, edit, improve, check all spellings and punctuations. Get
someone else to read it before it goes for release.
l. Ask critics to appraise and query it. Avoid becoming sensitive about your own copy. Learn
to be self-critical. Attempt putting yourself to the highest standard possible.
9. International News Agencies: News agencies are broad and well-organized news bodies
that collect and distribute information to media organizations that are already on the
subscription. News agencies collect and sell information; mostly, news or data to their
subscribers. Their major clients are the newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations
that depend on them for the news they cannot gather on their own. Also called wire services,
they are organizations that gather, process and disseminate news to various subscribers,
including the media, other news agencies, public institutions and commercial enterprises.
International news agencies are the news agencies that are universal in nature; they cover
every part of the globe; they are such news agencies that carry out extensive world news
coverage and distribute their news items to clients or subscribers all over the world. A world
news agency can either be profit- oriented or non-profit oriented. These international news
agencies help international public relations experts to persuade their publics and influence
their attitudes towards their products; there are different international news agencies; these
include: Associated Press (AP), Reuters, Agence France Presse (AFP),Telegrafnoie Agentsvo
Sovetskavo Soiuza (TASS), United Press International (UPI) and Inter Press Service (IPS).
10. Press Conference: This is a popular method for meeting the press. Organizations,
individuals and groups that have a compelling 44 BUSINESS OF INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
RELATIONS AND ADVERTISING need to press on some messages to the general public make
use of this medium. It usually involves the print and electronic media and it is organized ahead
of time. This is a strategy that can be used to win the goodwill of the international publics. A
multinational corporation can organize press conferences in different countries with the aim
of reaching out to the international publics with the main aim of winning their goodwill.
11. Satellite Television: Satellite television (satellite TV) is a particular kind of broadcast
delivery based on using space satellites to deliver signals. Companies make use of satellites
that have been sent out of the earth's atmosphere by beaming a signal up to the satellite and
delivering it to individual customers via the use of receiving equipment. Satellite TV helps
deliver signals in areas where customers may not be served by cable television or ''terrestrial''
broadcasting. Satellite television is also a good medium that can be used to communicate with
international public.
12. Internet: It is an electronic medium, which allows signal to be sent simultaneously and
heterogeneously, to the audience across the world. The internet is the most technologically
advanced medium of communication. It is a multimedia information superhighway that
facilitates business, sports, politics, entertainment and other endeavors across international
boundaries. It is a technological revolution of monumental capabilities.'' In fact, it isthe
information revolution that has turned the world into a “global village.” It is man's most
ambitious attempt to miniaturize the physical planet, earth. The Internet has become a world-
wide tool of information dissemination and communication. It has had profound impact on
academic, social and business communication. It has destroyed time, space and geography.
One of the features of the internet that readily advertises its democratic potential is its
openness.
13. Newsletter: It is issued at regular intervals to document the activities of an organization
and make it available to staff, shareholders and members of the public, who relate to the
organization. Newsletter is not only a great way for a multinational corporation to share
stories; it can also be a powerful marketing tool, providing useful information to the reader,
while indirectly promoting services of the company. Newsletters offering promotional
products are also a common marketing strategy, but public relations specialists use it to share
news and general information that may be of interest to the target audience, rather than
merely promoting products/services. For a multinational corporation to effectively use the
newsletter to win the goodwill of the international publics, the following points must be taken
into consideration:
i. Make it Regular: The first step is to ask yourself; am I committed to sending it out
regularly? There is no point in sending out a newsletter whenever you get around to it; it
has to be at least once a month, but preferably once a fortnight.
ii. Make it Relevant: The content of your newsletter needs to be appealing to your
readership; Have a think about what type of information they may find interesting. Avoid
using every opportunity to sell to your readers.
iii. Never Spam: Always ask people to opt in to receive the newsletter; so, make it easy to
subscribe and unsubscribe. Frustrated subscribers are not likely to return; there must be a
simple unsubscribe link. The newsletter must clearly state the sending organization and why
it was sent.

14. Bulletins: It is mostly used as internal communication 48 BUSINESS OF INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADVERTISING channel. Thus, a multinational corporation can use
bulletin to reach its various employees in various countries to create mutual understanding.
The bulletin is meant to ensure an effective two-way communication among employers and
employees, organizations and shareholders and also as a means of sharing information. The
bulletin normally deals with specific issues that are addressed to a particular group of
people in order to achieve certain goals.
15. Personal Contact: The multinational corporation can through its public relations expert
reach out to employees and other key stakeholders across the globe. The international public
relations expert in this case has a face-to-face contact with the stakeholders. This brings both
the management and the stakeholders together in a face-to-face communication situation.
The public relations man organizes meetings with the internal and external publics and in the
course of the meeting, public relations messages are disseminated. This is simply a personal
contact whereby; the public relations man starts contacting the various publics through
meetings. Organizing meetings with any of the publics can be an effective tool for maintaining
goodwill and cordial relationship between organizations or their management, as the case
may be and the publics. Such meetings provide two-way communication scenario for feeling
the pulse of the publics and taking relevant actions to make the relationship mutually
favorable.
16. Fact Sheets: Public relations fact sheets have come to focus sharply on the needs and
preferences of as much differing publics as possible. The media are inundated with several
other materials for publication that a fact sheet in its summary format and with faces and
figures usually compressed in one page, becomes very attractive. Sometimes, these papers
are slatted into newspapers and journals for wide readership.
17. Handbill and Brochure: They are publications that contain series of information designed
to educate the public on the objectives, goals and products of an organization. They are
usually published whenever there is a new product, suspected warning interest in old product
or in case of services to be introduced to the market. Handbills and brochures are often
simple, graphical, self-explanatory and brief in presentation, intended to provide direct and
usable information to all concerned. The publications are usually the main source of
information for people wishing to have relationship with such organization
References
Ezekiel S. Asemah, Moses T.Akase & Adeline O. Nkwam-Uwaoma. (2018) .Business of International Public Relations and
Advertising. Jos University Press Jos, Plateau State . ISBN: 978 - 166 - 778 - 8

https://nscpolteksby.ac.id/ebook/files/Ebook/Business%20Administration/Exploring%20Public%20Relations%20(2006)/9.
%20Chapter%207%20-%20International%20context%20of%20public%20relations.pdf