Public relations and public diplomacy in cultural and educational exchange programs: A coorientational approach to the Humphrey Program

• The Humphrey Fellowship Program was examined using the coorientation model.
• The perceptual gap between Humphrey Fellows and Program staff was investigated.
• Foreign Fellows of the Program viewed the U.S. staff’s goal to be public diplomacy.
• The U.S. staff of the Program did not have the public diplomacy goal in mind.
• Incongruency and inaccuracies were found in the perceptions of the two parties.