In the past, people would express their opinions by standing on he soapbox, which could be considered an effective way of talking with out mediations. I think that government communication differs to the political one. For starters it is information driven model and should be spin free. It informs people what they need to know. So on one hand gov’t communication should be more ethical however on the other hand someone has still decided on what information to deliver hence its selective.
According to Brian McNair, there are 4 types of PR activity. 1) media management, 2) image management, 3) internal communications and 4) information management. I would like to talk more about the image management. As we all know, in political PR it is all about developing someone’s image and identity in order to get more votes. I was closely following Obama’s campaign, which was the golden standard. It was interesting to see the transformation in order to make him even more popular.
What was interesting to see is a picture of Obama taken with facial expression of a guy that has a vision and of course with US colours in the background. The picture had the ability of making people see ideas and messages such as “yes we can” with out being told. PR was very clever by enabling people to purchase merchandise such as mugs, hats, T-shirts. This has shown the identification with the “Obama brand” that people have spread by purchasing these items.
They have also been reaching audience via social media networks by using celebrity endorsement, which is becoming an increasing trend in politics. I am including a video that went around the world and has spread the message to support Obama in the elections.
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