I believe that the role of public relations in politics is much more than ”spin.” It’s not just the flurry of damage control that surrounds the latest political scandal. It’s not simply the image consultants that tell a presidential candidate which colors make him look more approachable and which hair style the majority of the voting public will find appealing. Its about developing the right strategy and the right message. This is especially interesting right now, as the candidates’ PR strategies will frame our national political discussion heading into the 2008 elections. I’m looking forward to using this blog to follow these campaigns in their infancies and how they use PR.
You cannot have politics without PR. Even though I think a lot of people would like to believe otherwise, politics basically boils down to who has the better message and can communicate it effectively. Developing that message has become a science–politicians use focus groups to test their strategies; highly paid consultants carefully select words and images that will most likely engage and motivate voters.
And it’s not just the politicians that employ PR–the Iraq study group worked with Edelman on the release of their study. Every government agency contracts with PR firms. It even extends beyond the U.S.–the Vatican employs a powerful PR firm with offices, conveniently enough, in DC. I will primarily focus on U.S. politics, but it will be interesting to look how PR affects politics outside that sphere as well.
Coming off the State of the Union address earlier this week, as well as the latest announcements about the 2008 presidential race, this is a great time to examine how PR and politics are intertwined. So let’s get started!
