PIF Model Of Issue Management And Its Application In International Public Relations

Under the influence of globalization more and more entities enter into the international market to seek themselves a better survival and development. During this process, they must properly manage their relations with the public in heterogeneous cultural environment. To be specific, to cope with differences in life style, customs, social norms, cultural values and so forth with international audience, organizations ought to perform public relations activities with flexibility and adaptability combined so that the target audience will forge a good impression on organization, well understand their message, and therefore help to achieve their public relations goals. This paper argues that effective issue management is one of the ideal approaches for international entities to accomplish the success of public relations activities.Since 1970s, issue management has ranked as one of the most promising research area of public relations study. Besides, as public relations extend its reach into international market, audience with varied cultural backgrounds and their more unpredictable and sophisticated opinions bring huge challenge yet also provide broader space to issue management. In international environment, issue management assists PR practitioners to predict, analyze, evaluate the audience, utilize their resources, and then design appropriate strategy to manipulate issues in order to minimize the negative impact or maximize the positive influence.On the basis of a thorough literature review of theories and studies concerning issue management, public relations, communication, cross-cultural communication and cultural studies, this thesis establishes the PIF model of issue management in international public relations which describes the whole process and outlines its detailed steps, strategy and tactics. Furthermore, a case-study of the success of WHO's smallpox eradication campaign is elaborated to lend credence to the PIF model. In short, this study provides a reference for following research on international public relations, meanwhile puts forward a few adoptable suggestions for Chinese organizations in their international public relations practice.