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Public relations in the Middle East: an editorial introduction

Although origins of public relations can be traced to ancient times in regions across the world, its academic study has been associated with twentieth century United States of America (Broom & Sha, 2013). Ethnocentricity characterizes much of public relations theorizing, which does not capture the broader gamut of the global enactment of public relations (Sriramesh & Vercic, 2009, 2019). This special issue aims to situate research in a non-Euro-American context and to offer richly textured, contextual understandings of public relations in the Middle East. A region steeped in history; one that gave the world its first system of writing; the cradle of three world religions; producer of a substantial share of world oil – the Middle East in recent times has gripped the world’s attention not only with issues of grave importance in conflict-ridden countries, but also with transformative economic growth, especially in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Significant political, economic, social, and cultural similarities and differences among countries in the region imply the need to examine specific contextual factors that could impact the practice of public relations in the region. The purpose of this introductory essay is to analyze and contextualize extant research in the Middle East using the global public relations framework (see Sriramesh & Vercic, 2009, 2019), introduce the articles in this issue, and to propose directions for future research. The global public relations framework considers culture fairly broadly to encompass political, economic, media, societal, organizational, and activist cultures. The framework not only highlights the importance of examining these variables, but also emphasizes the interconnections among them. This editorial introduction is structured as follows. We review the variables of the global public relations framework and contextualize public relations research in Middle Eastern countries within the framework, introduce the articles in this special issue, and suggest avenues for future research.