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| Public relations practitioners involved in politics. (Source) |
Public relations and politics may sound as if they not clicking together but hey they make a good collaboration which ensures success. Public relations stands out as one of the most undermined professions in South Africa, and I think it’s all because most organisations do not have an understanding what public relations is all about. I was taught that public relations practitioners are somehow organisational journalists, watch-dogs for organisations.
Politics is one of the most controversial things you can find in the world or is maybe we seem not to get what politics is all about because of the way the media has framed the concept politics. Well politics is all about influencing the people around you through the state of organisational knowledge and I know that everyone has his or her own take of what politics means him/her when internalising the word or concept.
One of the reasons why this blog is emphasising that politics and public relations make a good collaborations is because most of our South African politicians and the government for that matter are in need of good public relations communications. Public relations is there to manage any communication risks and business opportunities internally and externally (link). It is the job of a public relations practitioner to manage communication to wide spectrum of stakeholders and to be able to manage any publicity an organisation may come across.
Public relations play a role in politics in many ways. I mean it plays a role of awareness, good media relations, good communication and all these I have mentioned is are all public relations functions that could help politics in any way. While public relations can help the voters understand the candidates more and what their mission is all about and it can help enhance the messages from the candidates to the voters. One of the breaking-point that could help politics is that public relations allows two-way communications and well I truly think it could help manage the communication between an organisation and its stakeholders a lot more better in the world of politics.
Imagine a political campaign without any publicity wow, I mean it will never work at all and that is why politics need public relations to help generate publicity, to manage and control the image and brand of the organisation through its persuasive methods of communication. Well what’s your take on this one?
