Culture, Social Class, and Race in Public Relations by Waymer Damion;

Author:Waymer, Damion;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

As noted earlier, the transition from solid modernity to liquid modernity has made greater individualism flourish at the expense of attitudes of solidarity. One consequence has been a propensity to fear social decline and, therefore, the generation of insecurity (Bauman, 2007a) and fear of social exchange, and “mixophobia” (Bauman, 2009, p. 71), toward new and different groups, especially immigrant minorities, in cities. Nevertheless, Bauman continues to be hopeful since mixophobial coexists with “mixophilia” (Bauman, 2009, p. 70). Mixophilia is the propensity or desire to mix with differences or with those who are different in search of enriching and fresh expectations and encouraging fruitful exchanges. In our view, public institutions have a civic duty to both value distinct cultures and to promote mixophilia. This may be by triggering, and, if need be, by regulating, the relations of citizens, and by challenging and changing negative images and damaging misperceptions of the ethnically different. Catalan public institutions and communication professionals do this through a variety of initiatives (including the public television programs analyzed above).

However, not everything should be analyzed from the perspective of alleviating the liquidity that characterizes our society. Another contemporary characteristic is society’s ability to commoditize anything, even people. For example, when an artist dies, he turns into an object of consumption: his work into something profitable, his art into business, his name into a brand, and his own self as artist into capital. The times of liquidity are times of products and merchandising. Even inclusive television cannot be immune to turning a stranger’s culture into an object of desire or love. In Bauman’s (2003) terms, if desire wants to consume, love wants “to hold and preserve the beloved object” (p. 9). Despite the commendable aims of these Catalan TV programs, the consumerism of liquid modernity has, at times, left traces. Shows can also end up being merchandising products as when a Karakia chapter which was devoted to the Vietnamese community focused on a family that owns a Vietnamese restaurant in Barcelona. The exposure also resulted as an excellent publicity campaign for this family business.

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