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Functions Of Governmental Public Relations

Decent Essays

Governmental public relations have been inspired by Grunig’s models of PR and, particularly, by the concept of symmetrical communication between organizations and publics (Gregory, 2006; Fisher & Horsley, 2007), a concept which, with its relationships with the notion of excellence (Grunig & Hunt, 1984; J.E. Grunig & L. Grunig, 1992; Grunig, 2001), has constituted the major framework that has guided public relations scholarship for the past 30 years (Botan & Hazleton, 2006). Mutual benefit, mutual understanding, win-win mixed motivated communication, are concepts used to denominate purposes of organizational public relations.
Whether governments can establish symmetrical relationships with their publics is an issue at stake; Grunig in cooperation with Jaatinen (1999) acknowledges that his symmetrical model would have to be adapted to the specific conditions of government communication. But the interest of this approach is that, in centering the analysis on the establishment of relationships, the understanding of the “public” is fundamentally altered; and hence altered is also the understanding (concept and functions) of government public relations: under this approach government communication is conceived as the cultivation of long-term relationships oriented to mutual understanding rather than being modelled on short-term, vote-winning approaches to communication.
If the establishment of long-term relationships between an organization and its publics is to inspire the

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