The American Way

The American colonies created multitude public relations experts, such as Hamilton, Madison, and Jay who published letters known as the Federalist Papers. Other “PR experts” – the founders of the United states – produced such documents as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, that Bates (2006) considers as masterworks of public relations that helped establish the United States as the basis for pursuing public relations as a profession representing the diverse interests of democracy and free enterprise.

PR Roots in Ancient Civilization

Bates (2006) in his paper on “Public Relations from the Dawn of Civilization” cited one of the patriarchs of modern public relations, Edward Bernays, who wrote, “The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people. Of course, the means and methods of accomplishing these ends have changed as society has changed.” In his opinion, much of recorded history can be interpreted as the practice of public relations. Whereas primitive societies ruled mainly through fear and coercion, more advanced cultures tried to build consensus, since coercion that was mostly grounded in force, transformed to words and public relations took its shape. The ancient rulers, in promoting and creating their image as kings or warriors, to impress their public by their greatness and prowess as well as to mold the public mind, used written and spoken tools (also architecture, art served as a tool). As a result oratory blossomed, and the public interest became a central concern of philosophical speculation.
As an evident of public relations’ power in ancient Rome were such phrases like as vox populi, vox Dei - “the voice of the people is the voice of God”, res publicae - “public affairs”. During his crossing of the Rubicon Julius Caesar organized the Romans by sending reports such as “Caesar’s Gallic Wars” on his epic achievement. Caesar already was aware about the power of news and published a daily paper Acta Diurna. He also wrote his Commentaries that can be sought as propaganda for himself.
The word “Propaganda” originated by Vatican in the seventeenth century, that is Congregatio de Propaganda Fide – “congregation for propagating the faith.” This is considered to be a definite acknowledgement of the need for a third party to mediate communication between government and its constituencies.
After the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens (1789), where the leaders of the French Revolution proclaimed the right of citizens to freely express and communicate their thought first propaganda ministry was created by National Assembly of France in 1792. It was part of the Ministry of the Interior and subsidized editors and sent agents to different parts of the country to gain public support for the French Revolution. (Bates 2006)

Understanding Public Relations

Public relations can be defined as the management function that is supposed to create and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between the commercial or non-commercial entities and "publics", that include customers, investors, employees, suppliers, legislators, competitors, government officials and other constituencies. Public relations practitioners’ end-result program is to create favorable support of the organizations they represent, to obtain positive coverage in the print and broadcast media. It is considered more diplomatic “sell”, as opposed to advertising and marketing that are supposed to promote their product in more forceful way. Due to its intricacy, public relations are often viewed as “propaganda” or “spin.”[1] (Bates 2006)
Public relations roots can be traced throughout civilization.
[1] In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation; it is a "polite" synonym for propaganda.

PR in Public Sector

For farther and more structural understanding of the Public Relations, it would be helpful to discuss the four-model framework that was developed in 1984 by Grunig and Huang (1995). These four models of public relations are:
1. press agentry,
2. public information,
3. two-way asymmetrical, and
4. two-way symmetrical.
Together, “Press agentry and public information form a continuum of craft public relations, which ranges from propaganda (press agentry) on one end to journalism (public information) on the other. The two-way models make up a continuum of professional public relations, which ranges from persuasion on one end (two-way asymmetrical) to conflict management (two-way symmetrical) on the other” (Grunig et al. 1995, 164).
It is worth noting that the public information model which is focused on the one-way communication or dissemination of information from a “source to a receiver” appears to be most popular in government agencies. In this model manipulation or persuasion is possible, though supposed to be intended and it also can be assumed that the receiver has little opportunity to provide feedback to, or influence the source. That is to say that the one-side model is most convenient for government agencies, since the source, while changing the receiver’s attitude and behavior, may remain unchanged. It is not surprising that government communications, which are largely supposed to provide information for citizens, remain distrusted because governments are widely perceived as putting a spin on every message, promoting image over substance, and exaggerating benefits. The practice of two-way symmetrical public relations is more appropriate in democratic structures, because it involves the use of “bargaining, negotiating, and strategies of conflict resolution to bring about symbiotic changes in the ideas, attitudes, and behaviors of both the organization and its publics” (Grunig et al. 1995, 169).
As Young (2007) put it in his general analysis, democratic governments are involved in intensive communication programs that are directed at broad audiences of citizens and communities. The motivation is to provide useful information to citizens, including information on changes in services and programs.
Moreover, PR in Public Sector should provide good communication, involving specialist public relations, social marketing and communications consultancy to organizations across the public sector. Its activities increasingly become subject to the techniques of modern marketing, while avoiding some challenges in fast changing environment and profits, product development and branding. Also there are issues that the Public Relations face in their way to retain democratic accountability - issues like the flexibility of the work within the bureaucratic environment, stakeholders priorities (because often there are monopolies with stable stakeholders), political pressures.
Good Public Sector Communication
According to Wideman (2001) good communication is an essential part of any successful organizational strategy for the general public to have transparency and accountability in the public sector in order to increase their voice and choice (“the empowered citizen”). Here it is proper to mention one more time, that honest, two-way communication is the only feasible choice for public organizations to build their reputation and strengthen relationships with their constituencies. Public sector first should strengthen PR departments in the state bodies, and second - communication should no longer start with the crafting of a message and deliver it to the citizens (which is considered as linear activity). Rather it should be a circular process of listening, learning, and letting people know. This circular approach to communication is far more effective than because it creates trust between an organisation and its constituencies. And with trust comes credibility.

Public Sector in Armenia – on its way to build trust and credibility

With regard to the trust, which is a firm foundation for two-way communication and the most important factor in PR departments contributing to long-lasting and successful relationship between citizens and respective state bodies, APSREP (Armenia-Public Sector Reform Project, website: www.gov.am) a lot of work, such as conducted surveys to review the status, capacities and needs of PR units in 36 Governmental Bodies. Also it has undertaken a number of steps to promote and lobby the establishment of PR departments in state bodies, to strengthen communication of RA Government through consulting, and drafting communication strategies.
In April 2004 RA President’s office initiated the process of establishment of PR Departments in ministries. In May 2004 the Government of Armenia approved the “exemplary” charters for PR departments and functions of press secretaries. Following the government’s approval of the charters for PR departments and functions of press secretaries APSREP supported ministries in establishing their PR departments.
In general, the document on public reform program in Armenia includes the following points with regard to the Public Relations, covering the issues of media, resources, and institutional issues:
- Support for Strengthening Public Relations and Media Functions in the Government of Armenia – reviewing the training support conducted in June and July 2005 to press secretaries and staff of public relations departments in 25 government ministries and adjunct bodies. The review describes the context and content of training modules, as well as records key findings and recommendations on the following areas: working more effectively with the media; resources; institutional issues; and working more effectively across government.
- Improving the Public Relations Function of the Government of Armenia. This document contains a collection of notes prepared by the APSREP team to assist the Government of Armenia to improve its Public Relations function. The following areas are covered: issues relating to the management and processing of information by PR units; overview of the international experience in the area of central coordination unit for a government’s PR activities and recommendations to the GoA; review of reporting arrangements, tools and techniques in a number of developed countries, and recommendations appropriate in the Armenian environment; and review of the issues arising in the process of implementation of the PR function and recommendations to overcome those. (www.gov.am)
- Recommendations for Social Ministries for National Opinion Poll , that is a technical note presenting the way the two National Opinion Polls data were used, reporting the feedback from the representatives of public relations departments of the pilot ministries on the appropriateness of the NOP, and reporting recommendations for a third NOP.