Public Relations and Politics: Strategy and Campaigns



Public Relations and Politics: Background and Contemporary Practice

Literature Review and Case Studies

Austin Corthell

Public Relations Theory & Practice (JMC 68000)

Public Relations Special Report

10/13/08

Introduction

Within the life of the generation now in control of affairs, persuasion has become a self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government. None of us begins to understand the consequences, but it is no daring prophecy to say that the knowledge of how to create consent will alter every political calculation and modify every political premise.

-Walter Lippmann[1]

The practice of public relations in politics is often derisively referred to as ‘pr’ or ‘spin’. In the contemporary political world of elections public relations serve a key role in campaigns. This paper is focused on the study of public relations in political campaigns. Composed of a literature review and two best practice case studies this special report cites the research of scholars in public relations and political communications. The literature review begins by providing a formal definition of ‘political public relations’. A brief history of the practice of public relations, outlining important figures and events, is provided that shows the growth of the profession as a key management function. The case study section features a study of a successful public relations campaign and a study of the effectiveness of public relations tactics in framing issues in the media. The purpose of this special report is to outline the existing body of knowledge regarding the study of public relations in politics and to show specific campaigns where excellent public relations management led to successful outcomes.

Public Relations and Politics: Background

Overview

‘Political public relations’ is the study of the practice of public relations in politics. In Christina Holtz-Bacha’s book Encyclopedia of Political Communication (Vol. 2) the author provides a formal definition of political public relations[2] that distinguishes the study from other relevant realms of study such as political marketing and political advertising. Central to Holtz-Bacha’s definition are the ideas of ‘informing’ and ‘persuading’. Unlike marketing and advertising, which seek to match a product or service with a particular audience desire, public relations is aimed at building relationships with audiences. A similar concept that is included in this literature review is that of political communication[3]. This is the concept that communications holds a vital role in mediating messages between the government and the public.

History

Political communication has grown from its humble beginnings in the 19th Century to its grand role in contemporary politics. Understanding the foundations of the practice of public relations is key to the history of public relations in politics. Public relations scholar Scott Cutlip’s book Public Relations History is a detailed history of public relations practice dating back to the formation of the country of the United States of America. Cutlip provides a working frame of reference regarding the emergence of public relations practice in politics. Beginning in the late 19th Century[4] Cutlip identifies the systemic organization of communication tactics in Presidential campaigns. Aide to President Grover Cleveland George F. Parker[5] is identified as a crucial figure in the early practice of public relations in politics. In the 1892 Presidential campaign Parker helped Cleveland combat negative newspaper attention by distributing copies of Cleveland speeches in advance to newspapers, a practice that laid the foundation for a long-term campaign for the candidate.

The 1896 Presidential campaign saw the first organization of publicity and campaign management. Both the Republican and Democratic parties organized their campaign headquarters, national speaking tours and produced written pamphlets meant to ‘educate’ voters. The McKinley also used the American flag as a symbol for the image of the campaign. Cutlip notes that this practice by the Republican Party has continued into the present[6]. The campaign of the Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryant was unable to match the Republicans efforts of publishing campaign literature. The ensuing Republican victory made clear the importance of the new publicity and campaign management tactics. Following his victory, President William McKinley, continued to monitor newspapers during his presidency. Print media dominated political campaigns until the advent of radio (1928) and television (1952).

Former Clinton administration communications official Sidney Blumenthal’s book The Permanent Campaign argues the importance of communication consultants in political campaigns and offers a history of important consultants. The chapter “The interpretation of American dreams” is a look at the early public relations practitioner Edward Bernays. Blumenthal states that despite the advent of modern public relations strategy and tactics it was Bernays who provided the original foundation for all public relations practice in politics[7]. Bernays is credited with formulating the ‘engineering of consent’, a key social doctrine used to determine audience understanding and desire[8]. In general, Blumenthal credits Bernays with legitimizing the vital role of the public relations consultant in a political campaign[9].

Stanley Kelley Junior’s book Professional Public Relations and Political Power offers a perspective of the role of public relations in politics at the midway point of the 20th Century. The book contains case studies of excellent public relations in political campaigns of the time and a summary of the role of public relations in political campaigns. The book identifies the growing role of the public relations practitioner in relation to the growth of mass media[10] and the production and delivery of key messages to audiences[11]. Kelley further illustrates the public relations practitioner’s growing importance in the realms of party politics and public discussion of issues.

Politics and Public Relations: Contemporary Practice

Role in modern campaigns

In contemporary world public relations serves a vital role in the management and strategy of political campaigns. Political communication scholars Robert E. Denton and Gary C. Woodward’s book Political Communication in America (3rd Ed.) focuses on the roles and functions of communication in politics. The authors argue that modern political campaigns are exercises in communication that are scientific in their research methods and systematic in their methods of implementation. The specific demands modern campaigns place on organizations requires professional expertise on the part of the consultant or practitioner[12]. Denton and Woodward cite the example of former President Ronald Reagan to further argue that governing, following a successful campaign requires constant campaigning[13].

Role of advertising

There is an overlap between public relations and advertising in regards to politics[14]. The importance of advertising in modern politics[15] means it plays a vital role in public relations practice. Christina Holtz-Bacha’s collection of academic essays The Sage Handbook of Political Advertising explores the role of political advertising in nations around the world. In the United States political advertising is viewed by many scholars as being dominated by an image driven model[16]. The idea of Image building[17], as we shall see, is central to the practice of public relations in politics.

Role of image

As previously mentioned the concept of image building is crucial to political advertising. Political advertising has become central to the practice of public relations in modern political campaigns[18]. In her book Political Empiricism: Communication strategies in state and regional elections author Rita Kirk Whillock applies communication research in order to show ties between theory and practice in political communication. Whillock argues that image building is crucial in the contemporary world of political campaigns because of publics’ general lack of motivation to search to research information when making voting decisions[19]. Whillock further contends that images inform the public of how a candidate might react to pressure situations when in office[20].

In his book Candidates and their images scholar Dan Nimmo addresses the concept of image in political campaigns. Nimmo draws on the work of public relations scholar Albert J. Sullivan in distinguishing the relationship between images and reality[21]. Sullivan wrote that the job of public relations is to present truthful images[22]. Nimmo finally arrives at his own concept of public relations in the concept of the image: “Thus, the public relations posture is that images are summary reflections of things consisting of as much of what we feel about a product or company as what we know (Nimmo, page 5).” Nimmo’s analysis of the role of image building in political campaigns bridges the divide between political advertisement and political public relations: “Generally, contemporary image campaigns are carefully orchestrated combinations of advertising and news accounts furnished through all available media –radio, television, newspapers, campaign brochures and mailings, and billboards, among them (Nimmo, page 7).” The overarching strategy of image building also shows the comprehensive management role in public relations practice in modern political campaigns.

Case Studies

The following case studies are included to illustrate best practice in political public relations and the effectiveness of public relations in framing issues in the media.

Best Practice

K. Sai Prasaad and Ramya Raghupathy’s journal article “A snapshot of a successful public relations strategy” outlines their research of the public relations activities of a candidate in the 2004 Indian election[23]. Their case study shows that appealing to audience’s emotions and successful use of caste image[24] were catalysts for the candidate’s electoral victory. By organizing a comprehensive public relations campaign that included media relations, public outreach, event planning and use of multimedia the candidate was able to be elected into office by a wide margin.

Evaluating Public Relations

Romy Froehlich and Burkhard Rudiger’s journal article “Framing political public relations: Measuring success of political communication strategies in Germany” is a case study of the political debate in Germany on immigration. The study attempts to evaluate the overall effectiveness of press releases at ‘framing’ the debate in the news media. The authors analyzed both the thematic frames, which analyze the points of emphasis, and the position frames, which cover the political definition of the issue, in their study. The study found that the various political parties in Germany were able to insert their messages into the media via press releases[25].

Sources

Books:

Blumenthal, S. (1980). The Permanent Campaign. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Cutlip, S. (1995). Public Relations History. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Denton Jr., R.E., Woodward, G.C. (1998). Political Communication in America (3rd ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing.

Holtz-Bacha, C., Kaid, L.L. (2008). Encyclopedia of Political Communication (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Kelley Jr., S. (1956). Public Relations and Political Power. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.

Nimmo, D. (1976). Candidates and their Images. Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing.

Whillock, R.K. (1991). Political Empiricism. New York City, NY: Praeger Publishing.

Journal Articles:

Prasaad, K.S., Raghupathy, R. “A Snapshot of a Successful Public Relations Strategy”. American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 49. No. 4 (December 2005): 629-633.

Froelich, R., Rudiger, B. “Framing political public relations: Measuring the success of political communication strategies in Germany”. Public Relations Review. Vol. 32. No. 1 (March 2006): 18-25.

Walters, T.N., Walters, L.M. “Agenda building the 1992 presidential campaign”. Public Relations Review. Vol. 22. No. 1 (Spring 1996): 9-25.

Teinowitz, I. “GOP’s contract winning in PR, ad arenas”. Advertising Age. Vol. 66. No.15 (April 1995): 8-9.

An, S., Jin, H.S., Pfau, M. “The effects of issue advocacy advertising on voters’ candidate knowledge and turnout”. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Vol. 83. No. 1 (Spring 2006): 7-24

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[1] Denton, R. Political Communication in America (3rd Ed.).

[2] “Political public relations refers to the strategic communication activities of actors participating in the political process that aim at informative and persuasive goals in order to realize single interests (Holtz-Bacha, page 677).”

[3] “Our political system processes a multitude of inputs from our social environment that become outputs of political structures, values, and actions. Communication channels the inputs, structures the outputs, and provides feedback from political system to the environment (Denton, page 3).”

[4] “More systemic efforts to carry the party message to the growing number of voters were developed in time for the 1880 Presidential campaign (Cutlip, page 210).”

[5] “Parker had known Cleveland in a casual way previously, but from this time on, he served the conservative Democrat in many important ways as a public relations aide (Cutlip, page 213).”

[6] “Republicans today still exploit the flag as though they had a corner on patriotism (Cutlip, page 217).”

[7] “For it was Bernays who in the 1920s invented the media event, the latent message, appeals of indirection, and initiated market research (Blumenthal, page 12).”

[8] “He introduced the scientific approach to problems of public opinion, developing a coherent conceptual understanding of advertising he called the ‘engineering of consent’. This social doctrine has been used to understand and manipulate the psyches of voters as well as consumers (Blumenthal, page 13).”

[9] “More, Bernays established the role of the media consultant as respectable and essential (Blumenthal, page 13).”

[10] “More than anything else, public relations as an occupation owes its existence to the growth of the mass media of communication (Kelley, page 202).”

[11] “Each medium has a somewhat different audience and a different meaning to its audience. Each message that is sent through the communication system must compete successfully with thousands of others, if it is to reach the consumer at all (Kelley, page 203).”

[12] “Today, campaigns are run by professional consultants who coordinate the activities of media, advertising, public relations, and publicity. They understand both the new technologies and the unique requirements of campaigning (Denton, page 101).”

[13] “Governing the nation, then, becomes a perpetual campaign where the public is constantly addressed and its support continually solicited. Ronald Reagan brought into the White House some of the most sophisticated marketers, pollsters, and media advisors to ever work for a president (Denton, page 102).”

[14] “However, the two concepts may overlap insofar as political advertising can affect the image of a political actor, just as long-term political public relations can influence voting behavior (Holtz-Bacha, page 677).”

[15] “At almost every electoral level, from school board elections and the selection of court judges to the selection of the president, political advertising is the predominant form of communication between candidates and office seekers and citizens (Holtz-Bacha, page 37).”

[16] “This argument often manifests itself in the concern that television advertising will focus the voters’ attention more on the image and personal qualities of a candidate than on a candidate’s issue experience and positions (Holtz-Bacha, page 41).”

[17] “Image building –which is applied to organizations as well as persons- aims at establishing credibility and trust that may guarantee long term support without having to ask for understanding for each single decision and that enhances the chances that public relations messages are adopted by journalists (Holtz-Bacha, page 679).”

[18] “Whole campaigns are often centered on image qualities of the candidate such as leadership, experience, integrity, independence, honesty, intelligence, and trustworthiness (Whillock, page 111).”

[19] “Image campaigns become particularly important to those who lack the desire to sort through the mass of materials or the ability to do so (Whillock, page 113).”

[20] “In such cases, the candidates’ images are perceived as more telling of how they are likely to react in the future than are their statements about their stand on a particular issue (Whillock, page 112).”

[21] “Sullivan distinguishines between images and reality, but notes a close relationship: images are reflections of reality that carry information about things that lie outside the mind (Nimmo, page 3).”

[22] “Sullivan concludes that in dealing with images, public relations must be above suspiscion in its regard for the truth (Nimmo, page 4).”

[23] “This case study is a chronological outline of the public relations activities that a politician, Raghuveera Reddy, undertook in his quest for a seat in the legislative assembly of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh during the elections of 2004 (Prasaad, page 630).”

[24] “This also received media coverage, which in general terms portrayed Raghuveera Reddy as interested in not only the welfare of his own community but also the general uplifting of all communities (Prasaad, page 631).”

[25] “In doing so the findings of this framing study suggest that the political players in the German immigration debate were effective in placing their preferred frames in the media and, respectively, being related to these frames (Froelich, page 24).”

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