Government public relations in democratic societies
Whilst the government's management" of the media on a day-to-day basis is the focus of this chapter, it is self-evident that political parties must win elections to take or maintain power. So, while this chapter will not discuss electioneering in detail, it is worth noting that it is in relation to election contests that the changing nature of communicative activity surrounding democratic politics is sometimes thrown into sharpest relief. The "buying of media and promotional expertise is increasingly a feature of contemporary in' management world. Several recent studies of political campaigns around the themes with communication during election campaigns have highlighted similar regard to the role of public relations and political advertising.
For Boris Yeltsin's referendum campaign, Saatchi and Saatchi were invited by Yeltsin's pollsters, to accompany Gallup Poll and Matrix Public Relations on a research study among Russian voters. We were then asked to present recommendations to help Yeltsin.
(Hilton 1993: 24, quoted in Negrine 1996: 146)
The victory of Ernest "the bull' Percz Balladares in the Panamanian presidential elections marks the second time in a fortnight that Saatchi and Saatchi has won an election in central America.
(Gunson 1994: 11, quoted in Negrine 1996: 146)
It is not just in the West that public relations is credited with a central role in the capturing and maintaining of political power. From political cultures as different as Russia and Central America it would appear that it is not or personalities which win elections but Anglo-American advertising and public relations companies. Saatchi and Saatchi is, in a British context, most famous for campaigns behalf of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government but it is important to remember that the company was also significantly involved in the related area of public relations.
While the role of public relations in election campaigns is not central to the present role of public relations in discussion, it should be recognised that the expansion of the role of the public relations specialist in elections is part of a wider trend. This is reflected in the expansion of the role of public relations specialists in the day-to-day relationship between the media and the government. British politicians, and especially the government, are, in many ways, at the heart of the news machine and television news, in particular, feeds us a constant daily diet of stories about Westminster, Whitehall and the devolved parliaments, Knight and Curtis (1987: 49) note that "News prioritises the state and its agents, treating even minor state activities as inherently newsworthy agents of the state as "reliable" sources and as interesting speakers and portraying the visible aspects of relations among television broadcasts, to devote so time to political news stories? To a great extent the answer much this question lies in the success of political public relations' 1994) and more to the success recent have had in media management and information management. The two processes are, of course, intimately related but for the purposes of the ensuing discussion they will be discussed as separate activities.