Tuesday, February 11th - Values Advocacy
This week's focus was on the concept of values advocacy: when an organization strategically emphasizes certain shared cultural values in order to persuade publics to align with them and support their organization. Support can be exercised whether that is through purchasing their product/service or supporting their policy influences. The first reading by Botsdorff & Vibbert (1994) helped me to understand the full scope of this concept and the three reasons that organizations employ it, namely enhancing their image, dodging criticism, and establishing a foundation of value premises that in the future can be used to benefit themselves or their policies. Values advocacy is important to recognize out in "the real world" in order to identify which of these three functions an organization is using.
One example I thought of from the past week was from the Oscars, when Korean director Bong Joon-ho's film Parasite won 4 Oscars. The victory came to my attention through social media on Sunday night, but over the next few days, Joon-ho's accolades were all over the internet. Parasite has been described as an fantastic film, the filmmakers involved were undoubtedly deserving of these awards. However, this Oscars sweep for Bong-ho comes after years of protest that the Oscars have a tendency to award films with white characters and white filmmakers (PBS, 2020). So, this makes me wonder if the Oscars were exercising a bit of values advocacy. Similar to recent criticisms of the Grammys, the Oscars have been around for a long time and are in dire need to adapt with the times. Globalization has made entertainment consumers aware of music, films, and more beyond their domestic borders, and social movements as well as social media users have pushed for there to be more diverse stories told and recognized in the mass media. Parasite's wins, I believe, could be a move on the Oscars' part of values advocacy, specifically the first two functions: image enhancement and deflecting criticism. Celebrating Parasite and making room for foreign films in their runnings makes the Oscars look better and will likely enhance their viewership and social acceptance in the years to come.
Bostdorff, D. M., & Vibbert, S. L. (1994). Values advocacy: Enhancing organizational images, deflecting public criticism, and grounding future arguments. Public Relations Review, 20(2), 141-158.
PBS NewsHour (2020, February 10). What best picture Oscar for 'Parasite' means for foreign films. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsL8opTKyLo
One example I thought of from the past week was from the Oscars, when Korean director Bong Joon-ho's film Parasite won 4 Oscars. The victory came to my attention through social media on Sunday night, but over the next few days, Joon-ho's accolades were all over the internet. Parasite has been described as an fantastic film, the filmmakers involved were undoubtedly deserving of these awards. However, this Oscars sweep for Bong-ho comes after years of protest that the Oscars have a tendency to award films with white characters and white filmmakers (PBS, 2020). So, this makes me wonder if the Oscars were exercising a bit of values advocacy. Similar to recent criticisms of the Grammys, the Oscars have been around for a long time and are in dire need to adapt with the times. Globalization has made entertainment consumers aware of music, films, and more beyond their domestic borders, and social movements as well as social media users have pushed for there to be more diverse stories told and recognized in the mass media. Parasite's wins, I believe, could be a move on the Oscars' part of values advocacy, specifically the first two functions: image enhancement and deflecting criticism. Celebrating Parasite and making room for foreign films in their runnings makes the Oscars look better and will likely enhance their viewership and social acceptance in the years to come.
Bostdorff, D. M., & Vibbert, S. L. (1994). Values advocacy: Enhancing organizational images, deflecting public criticism, and grounding future arguments. Public Relations Review, 20(2), 141-158.
PBS NewsHour (2020, February 10). What best picture Oscar for 'Parasite' means for foreign films. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsL8opTKyLo
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