Television, Movies May Hamper American PR Effort Library: LIF-SOC Keywords: TELEVISION, MOVIES AMERICAN PR Description: Efforts to battle terrorism may be hampered by misperceptions about America in movies and television shows, says a Ball State University public relations expert.
For more information on the following story, contact Melvin Sharpe at msharpe at bsu.edu or (765) 285-8215.
TELEVISION, MOVIES MAY HAMPER AMERICAN PR EFFORT
MUNCIE, Ind. - Efforts to battle terrorism may be hampered by misperceptions about America in movies and television shows, says a Ball State University public relations expert.
America faces a war of global public relations where credibility is the key and will be the main factor in achieving, winning and maintaining global public support, said Melvin Sharpe, a public relations professor and a member of the International Public Relations Association.
"The media are vital in an increasingly democratic interdependent world," he said. "The messengers can complicate the communication process simply because of the many choices people have in the acquisition of information and because of the need to compress information into media sound bites that can be instantaneous and sometimes misleading."
Since the inception of the motion picture industry and the development of television, America has been exporting a steady diet of Hollywood and television productions.
Many of these programs seem to suggest America's social problems are far greater than those experienced in other cultures and countries, Sharpe said.
"This image is complicated by coverage of our political scandals which indicates to the outsider that our democracy has no edge over the corruption experienced in other cultures," he said. "Simply put, we allow all our warts to show without adequately communicating the strengths inherent in the process of self-analysis and public exposure."
During his travels to nearly 30 countries, Sharpe has been asked questions based on impressions drawn from a movie or television series.
"Many parents express fear about the safety or corruption of their children scheduled to study or to live as an exchange student in the United States," he said. "Part of our need as Americans is to be much more aware of what we communicate and how our image is communicated. Corrective action is needed."
Despite the problems with such misperceptions, Sharpe is against governmental controls on the media.
"But we must find ways of balancing information and do a better job in learning how we are perceived so that we can be more effective in communicating the strengths of our democracy and its value to a global society where change and social interdependence have become a necessity," he said.
(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Sharpe at msharpe at bsu.edu or (765) 285-8215. For more stories, visit the Ball State University News Center at www.bsu.edu/news on the World Wide Web.)
Marc Ransford 10/23/01
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