News Coverage of Foreign Place Brands: Implications for Communication Strategies

How are foreign place brands represented? Who has the power to represent foreign place brands? And what is left unrepresented of foreign place brands? Place brands of cities and regions are represented variously by government agencies, tourist offices, but also by vicarious means – that is, via the literature, the movies, music or the internet. For the potency of the latter’s influence, consider, for example, how the movie Crocodile Dundee boosted tourist arrivals to Australia. These forms of representation shape the perception of particular place brands and consumers’ attitude towards them (Lippman 1922), thereby impacting the environment in which enterprises conduct their trade. While the literature on place brand representation and popular culture continues to expand, in recent years little academic research attention has been devoted to the topic of how the media impact on foreign place branding practice. This observation justifies this chapter, which looks at how decision-makers can leverage agenda-setting methodology and enquiry to influence the formation of the media agenda. In particular, it argues that the challenges confronting decision-makers go beyond the national framework. In an age of “international integration”, economic activities and communications also move beyond geographic boundaries. Within such a framework the media play an important role in influencing the public awareness of foreign place brands. Because of their remoteness we tend to have only limited direct contact and knowledge of foreign place brands. Consequently, our knowledge about them tends to be strongly influenced by media coverage. The news about foreign place brands flows into the living rooms of households and the boardrooms of companies. News diffusion follows the specific rules of the media system. In particular, these rules are guided by the processes of selection, condensation and framing, which, in turn, modify the media image of foreign place brands.