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.
