The Importance and Application of Public Relations in Government

The Importance and Application of Public Relations in Government

                 By Yemi Olakitan

          Public relations, according to Black (1989, p.5) “is the art and science of achieving harmony with the environment through mutual understanding based on truth and full information” While BIPR (1969) defines public relations as “the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understand and good will between an organization and its publics”

          ‘Public relations’ is an important part of governance globally.. Public Relations is so important because of the need for the ruling government to understand and be understood by the subjects. The government cannot exist in isolation. It is working for the good of the public.. The government ensures the security of lives and property. They ensure that law and order is maintained. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the economic prosperity of the people. They cannot do this without the cooperation of the people they governed. This cooperation is achieved through Public Relations. It is Public Relations that ensure that a mutual cooperation exists between the government and the people. This will help to maintain peace, progress and economic advancement.  

       The government cannot rule successfully unless they create a mutual understanding among the people they governed. As a matter of fact, there would be anarchy and civil unrest if the public does not understand the government that rules them. Therefore, ‘Public Relations’ is an important instrument of government.

         In Nigeria the government established media organizations in order to further its public relations activities. There is the National Television Authority, NTA, which has more than 35 television stations all over the country in all the states of the federation including community stations. The federal government also established the Federal Radio Corporation, FRCN, which also has several radio stations all over the country, in all the states of the federation as well as communities. The defunct Daily Times Newspaper of Nigeria is one of the media instruments of 'public Relations' established by the federal government to further a good understanding of government motives and purposes.  In addition to these, all the 36 states governments have states owned radio and television stations, which are directly owned and controlled by the government. This ensures that the government disseminates information through news, different shows discussing topical issues in the state and on state of the nation. 

       Both the military and civilian government make use of 'public relations' in Nigeria. The government makes use of the media either in a military or democratic dispensation. During the military era in Nigeria, the military government tried to achieve legitimacy by using the media to promote its government’s positive activities. In fact when a military government succeeds in overthrowing an existing government through coup d’état, the first step of such government is the radio station where the leader of the coup plotters will read a beautifully crafted speech that explains their intention for ceasing power so that they can be accepted by the nation. They tried to create many good reasons for their treason.

      There is usually an information Minister both at the federal and state level who coordinates the public relations activities of the ruling government. ‘Public Relations’ is even more important in a democracy. Democracy is defined as government of the people, by the people and for the people. If democracy must thrive it must be backed up with good communication strategies, what better tool than 'Public Relations' in the establishment and enthronement of democratic governance?  This is because democracy has to do with the inter relationship of the various arms of governance and how this government serves the people. In other to achieve effectiveness in governance in all these arms of government, 'Public Relations' strategies must be employed. The government use PR so that the people can understand and appreciate them.

          Another very important application of 'Public Relations' in governance is Lobbying. Political interest groups used lobbying to influence government decisions in the high places. Many times, public Relations agencies are employed to do this job particularly in parliamentary decision making.. PR agencies help to push the interests of pressure groups or the political interests of organizations or individuals. One of the more sophisticated methods for influencing legislators is a practice known as 'grass tops' communications. In this, the PR agency will carefully identify the peer group of the target legislators. They will then hire one or more members of that group, friends or acquaintances of the target, to informally promote the PR message within the group.  In this way the agency aims to create for the target the artificial impression that 'everyone is talking about it' and that there is strong community support for the issue. With this method, legislators may not even realize that they are being lobbied to pass a bill in favour of a certain interest or section of the public.

          By definition, democratic governments should reflect public opinion and work best when the citizens are well informed. In the United States for example, there were lots of examples of public relations undertaken by federal and local governments following the US Civil War. Publicity, promotional, and informational campaigns were launched by various federal departments, as well as by cities and states. California, for instance, conducted extensive and expensive campaigns to attract new residents.

These government efforts paralleled what many businesses were doing at the time, and the government employees who performed these tasks had the same titles as their business counterparts. These titles included such terms as publicity agent, promoter, press agent, press secretary, and public relations specialist. In Nigeria, many state governments usually have press secretaries who usually act as the Chief spokesperson to the Government. Such person is usually appointed from the communication profession. At the moment, popular journalist and columnist, Reuben Abati is the Chief spokesman of President Good luck Jonathan in Nigeria. He performs numerous public Relations functions and advices the government on issues affecting its image and relationship with the media.

          In the international circles Public Relations agencies are increasingly being hired to promote the public image of countries. Since the World Trade Centre bombing and the prospect of war, effective PR in the USA may now be a prerequisite for the long-term survival of a governments in the Islamic world. Both Pakistan and the Philippines reportedly hired PR agencies in 2002 to promote their image in the United States. Saudi Arabia, home of most of the September 11th hijackers directed larger and larger sums at rehabilitating its image in the USA. It hired a PR agency to advertise its efforts to help the US in combating terrorism and to place pro-Saudi articles in the press, spending a record $14.6 million between April and September 2002.  This is aside from lobbying for the government of Saudi Arabia in the US congress.

             In France, the 2012 election campaign is in full swing with the conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist François Hollande leading the battle to become the country’s next President. This is not new in itself, but there has been a significant change in the way in which the main politicians are leading their campaigns in that they are now being played out on social networks. Facebook and Twitter as these tools of communication can no longer be ignored in the French political arena, in stark contrast to the 2007 elections where social networks hadn’t even entered the running.

This year, all candidates are clearly using digital communications as key components to their campaigns, with Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande alone spending 2 million euros on digital technology.

        References to Facebook and Twitter have also become commonplace in the traditional media. Both have become valuable sources of information due to the speed at which they convey general sentiment and opinion. Party rallies are tweeted in real time and PR videos relayed within seconds. All of this enables the media and general public to follow campaign developments as they unfold. This sudden enthusiasm for social media signifies a reconciling with the French public and politics, a narrowing of the gulf that has existed between the two for some time?

          Twitter and Facebook have a tendency to focus on slip-ups without really exploring an important subject. Both candidates’ PR teams are using them to criticize the other party without entering into the heart of the debate. When François Bayrou, the centrist candidate, urged his followers to only buy products with the label “Made in France” the programme featured him driving away from a rally in an Audi.  People are also commenting much more freely on politics than they used to. A decade or so ago politicians’ communications campaigns amounted to a poster with a slogan in order to portray the ideology behind their thinking. Today PR has evolved to the extent that the candidates’ advisors have practically become spokespeople themselves, one example being Thierry Saussez, advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy. So it seems the presidential election is destined to play out in this way; through communication campaigns, which highlight a lack of knowledge and experience in harnessing social media to promote the fundamental elements of a political campaign. As a result, reforms, ideas, campaign agendas and the state budget no longer seem a priority; they’ve become a campaign tool like any other.

       In 2004, the Olusegun Obasanjo government launched an image project for the Nigeria, which was called the Nigeria image project by the president. The then Information and National Orientation Minister, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, made a presentation on “image and national economics” to media, public relations and advertising executives. The project was government attempt at changing positively international perception about the country. Frank Nweke Junior, the Minister of Information and National Orientation renamed the project in 2005which later translated to “The Heart of Africa” (HOA) project. The HOA project received a government contribution of 600 million Naira (about $3 million) (Norah, 2006. P.2.) These is one of the ways that government use PR to enhance its image. Subsequently, Professor Dora Akunyili under the administration of the late former President Musa Yar’Adua launched a rebranding project that aim to improve the image of Nigeria abroad.