ABSTRACT
Most theorizing on dialogue within public relations scholarship has been centered in Euro-American worldviews and organization-centered approaches, undervaluing the critical influence of culture, which restricts the global applicability of dialogic theory. This chapter aims to broaden the scope of dialogic theory by exploring public relations in the Middle East, by applying the Global Public Relations Framework, which defines culture broadly to include political, economic, societal, media, and activist cultures. This chapter argues that the complex and simultaneous interplay of myriad cultural factors such as wasta, orientation toward collectivism and group affiliation, and high-power distance creates positive and negative spaces of dialogue, thus contributing to a nuanced set of enabling and limiting conditions for dialogue. Although this chapter focuses on the Middle East, cultural factors worldwide can challenge or promote the classical idea of “true dialogue.” Future research can extend this argument to other cultural contexts of practice, thus expanding the global applicability of dialogic theory.
