Advocates or adversaries? Explicating within-border foreign publics’ role in shaping soft power through megaphoning and echoing

Vibber, Kelly; Kim, Jeong‐Nam

doi:10.1057/s41254-019-00156-0

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…For the purposes of this study, we surveyed the GKS students, who are foreigners that had spent at least 10 months in Korea, after which they evaluated the country in a survey. Their evaluations of Korea were more informed due to their direct first-hand and behavioral experiences rather than having obtained mere impressions through symbolic communication (Choi et al 2019;Tam and Kim 2019;Vibber and Kim 2019). In other words, the GKS recipients experienced "close, direct, experiential, and sociological" communication with Koreans during their long stays in the country, compared to other foreigners' "essentially distant, mediated and superficial" communications with Korea and Koreans through the culture media and international news (Yun and Kim 2008, p. 568).…”

Section: Country Imagementioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Global Korea Scholarship students’ word-of-mouth about Korea

Ayhan

Gouda

2021

Asia Pacific Educ. Rev.

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International student-mobility programs are one of the core programs countries employ as part of their public diplomacy portfolio. Policymakers assume that sponsored foreign students would develop positive beliefs about and emotions towards the host country, which in turn would lead to favorable behavior towards it. However, evaluations of such programs from a public diplomacy perspective are rare and Western-centric. In this paper, we analyze how Global Korea Scholarship students' cognitive and affective evaluations of Korea influence their country image and word-of-mouth about Korea; i.e., in how they voluntarily share their experiences in Korea with others. We use variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data obtained from surveying 1107 scholarship holding foreign students. Our findings suggest that students evaluate Korea most positively in terms of its culture and nature, while their evaluations are not as positive in terms of the integrity and values of the country. For positive word-of-mouth, affection towards Korea plays the most significant role, while for negative word-of-mouth, the students' beliefs about the country's integrity and values had the most influence. Our findings help identify the strengths and weaknesses in Korea's country image which can, in turn, inform and shape policies accordingly.

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Section: Country Imagementioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Global Korea Scholarship students’ word-of-mouth about Korea

Ayhan

Gouda

2021

Asia Pacific Educ. Rev.

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“…Tam and Kim’s ( 2019 ) recent taxonomy of important foreign publics for achieving public diplomacy goals highlights that a positive behavioral experience with a country is key to having the foreign public communicate positively on behalf of that country (i.e., advocational or ambassadorial foreign publics). An empirical study by Vibber and Kim ( 2019 ) provides further support for this connection, finding that within-border foreign publics (e.g., international exchange students) who perceived their relationship with the host country positively reported higher scores on positive megaphoning and lower scores on negative megaphoning. In addition, this positive or negative megaphoning to members of their home country was positively related to an echoing effect where members of their social networks in their home country repeated or reshared the original messages, positive or negative, and magnifying their reach (c.f.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The concept of megaphoning was developed in the employee context (Kim and Rhee 2011 ) and has been utilized successfully in research on fan publics (Krishna and Kim 2016 ), as well as in the conceptualization of within-border foreign publics’ communicative action in support of, or against, their host country (Vibber and Kim 2015 , 2019 ). Its application in this study on citizens’ communicative action around mega-events is the first that the authors are aware of on this topic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Citizens represent an “insider” group, much like employees do for corporations. They have a different and deeper understanding of their country than those visiting and this places them in a unique position to engage in megaphoning (Vibber and Kim 2015 , 2019 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, this positive or negative megaphoning to members of their home country was positively related to an echoing effect where members of their social networks in their home country repeated or reshared the original messages, positive or negative, and magnifying their reach (c.f. Vibber and Kim 2019). Given the massive influx of foreigners to a country during these events and the likelihood that they are interacting with citizens at some point, if not daily during their stay, person-to-person diplomacy has strong potential to color the foreigners' experience with, opinion of and communication about the host country.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The overlooked public: examining citizens’ perceptions of and perceived role in hosting mega-events

Vibber

Lovari

2021

Place Brand Public Dipl

Self Cite

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This research aims to answer questions about how citizens perceive the hosting of mega-events, how they view their role in interacting with foreign visitors (e.g., person-to-person diplomacy), and to what extent they communicate in support of, or against, their country’s mega-event efforts. By focusing inward and examining citizen perceptions and communicative actions, this research expands the work that has been done around nation branding and the impact of hosting mega-events, which usually foregrounds the response of foreign publics. Internal/citizen publics are largely overlooked and bear great importance from a communication, public relations, and public diplomacy standpoint. A convenience sample of 426 Italian citizens completed the online survey. Results indicate that citizens who placed high importance on their interactions with foreigners reported significantly higher scores on attitudes toward Italy hosting the World Exposition (Expo), positive megaphoning behaviors about Italy hosting the Expo and perceived themselves as ambassadors during the mega-event. The findings highlight that the important role citizens can play as ambassadors, both of their country and on behalf of the mega-event. Their megaphoning behavior and perception of the importance of interacting with foreign visitors have the potential to magnify the positive impact of hosting mega-events both internally and abroad.

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Employee Activism and Internal Communication

Krishna

2021

New Perspectives in Organizational Communication

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Advocates or adversaries? Explicating within-border foreign publics’ role in shaping soft power through megaphoning and echoing

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

Determinants of Global Korea Scholarship students’ word-of-mouth about Korea

Determinants of Global Korea Scholarship students’ word-of-mouth about Korea

The overlooked public: examining citizens’ perceptions of and perceived role in hosting mega-events

Employee Activism and Internal Communication

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