Klochan E., IE-08A

Scientific supervisor: Candidate of Politology, Docent Halilova-Chuvaeva U.A.

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND POLITICS

In the contemporary political world in the campaigns public relations play a key role. This article is focused on the study of public relations in political campaigns. The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of PR on political choice of people. 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 features of campaigns where excellent public relations management led to successful outcomes.

There are 3 main definitions of public relations, such as ‘the art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public’, ‘the methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public’, ‘the degree of success obtained in achieving a favorable relationship with the public’. So, public relations in the political arena covers a wide range of activities, including staging debates, holding seminars for government leaders, influencing proposed legislation, and testifying before a congressional committee. Political candidates engage in public relations, while doing government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels [1].

Political communication has grown from its beginnings in the 19^th 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. Scientists provide a working frame of reference regarding the emergence of public relations practice in politics. The 1896 Presidential campaign saw the first organization of publicity and campaign management. Both the Republican and Democratic parties of the USA 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. This practice by the Republican Party has continued into the present. 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) [2].

In contemporary world public relations serves a vital role in the management and strategy of political campaigns 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.

There is connection between public relations and advertising in regards to politics. The importance of advertising in modern politics means that it plays a vital role in public relations practice. And also the idea of Image building is central to the practice of public relations in politics. Political advertising has become central to the practice of public relations in modern political campaigns.

The topic of this article is rather actual nowadays because in modern Ukrainian situation, connected with growing role of PR in Ukrainian political system. Scientists distinguish 3 types of political technologies: image, idea and technology of cult. To find the ‘key’ to all citizens, politicians should use all types of PR technologies. But nowadays Ukrainian politicians use only different parts of PR system. For example, Ukrainian politicians more and more often work in image style of advertising. PR managers use emotional background and psychological direction of technologies. All Ukrainian politicians try to use PR image. All of them try to make an image of strong leader who can help Ukraine to be in order. All Ukrainian politicians sometimes use methods of ‘Black PR’. Black Public Relations (BPR) or negative PR is a process of destroying someone's reputation and corporate identity. In other words, instead of concentrating efforts in the maintenance and the creation of a positive reputation image of your clients, you are trying to discredit someone else. Unlike the regular services in Public Relations, those in BPR rely on the development of industries such as IT security, industrial espionage, social engineering and competitive intelligence. Their main objective is finding all of the dirty secrets of their target and turning them against their very own holder. The building of a Black PR campaign, also known as dirty tricks or smear campaign is a long and complex operation. Traditionally it starts with an extensive information gathering and follows the other needs of a precise competitive research. The gathered information is being used after that as a part of a greater strategical planning, aiming to destroy the relationship between the company and its stakeholders [3].

Political PR became a part of our life. Using it political technologists influence on minds of all citizens. Right PR technologies can make positive or totally negative attention of masses to candidates or politicians. Thus, we must notice that political choice is not 100% objective and more and more often it depends on quality of PR campaigns and image of politician or party. Such a situation is very close to Ukrainian political system, so the best recommendation for citizens is to avoid emotional decisions in elections and to pay great attention to objective reasons as programmes of parties and political leaders.

References

1. 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.

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

3.Wattenberg, Martin P. Negative Campaign Advertising: Demobilizer or Mobilizer. eScholarship Repository. UC Irvine, Department of Politics and Society. Retrieved on January 29, 2005.