On-line Readings in Public Relations by Michael Turney
	Government public relations
	© 2000; 2018 Michael Turney	Table of contents	Practicing Public Relations home page	About the author

Governments were among the first organizations to need, and to practice, public relations as a way of maintaining appropriate relationships with their citizens. They still need to maintain such relationships but, in the United States today, government actions designed to maintain such relationships are rarely called "public relations."

 
By definition, democratic governments should reflect public opinion and work best when the citizens are well-informed. Thus, public relations should have a natural and welcome role in U.S. government. And, for a number of years it did.

There were lots of examples of what we now call public relations undertaken by federal and local governments following the Civil War. Publicity, promotional, and informational campaigns were launched by various federal departments, as well as by cities and states. California, for instance, conducted extensive and expensive campaigns to attract new residents.

These government efforts paralleled what many businesses were doing at the time, and the government employees who performed these tasks had the same titles as their business counterparts. These titles included such terms as publicity agent, promoter, press agent, press secretary, and public relations specialist.

 

Government public relations had to change its name.

By 1913, several special interest groups and political activists were beginning to express public concerns about the appropriateness of government agencies being involved in public relations, and particularly their attempts to influence legislative decisions. So, they began lobbying Congress in an attempt to have strict limits placed on government spending for public relations.

Much of the impetus for this came from lumber-related big business interests that resented the public relations success of the U.S. Forest Service that had led to closing some federal land to logging activity. Additional pressure arose because of partisan political rivalries, and still more pressure came from political activists who promoted vague and general fears that a government public relations activity could could be perverted into a propaganda machine that would manipulate public opinion.

As a result, what's now known as the Gillett Amendment was added to the statute that created the Interstate Commerce Commission. This modest-seeming amendment turned out to be one of those quirky but not uncommon acts of Congress that ultimately end up having much more power and influence than their language originally suggests.

Although it's now often described as a ban on government public relations, that's not what the Gillett Amendment started out to be. It didn't prohibit government public relations; it simply said: "Appropriated funds may not be used to pay a publicity expert unless specifically appropriated for that purpose."

Then World War I came along, and with it came the extensive use of propaganda by all of the warring nations. Ironically, when the war was over and the success of those propaganda efforts led people like Edward Bernays and countless businesses to increase their public relations efforts, there was a huge backlash against government propaganda and a rising fear of government manipulation.

• Public relations was seen as a great and growing activity when practiced by businesses and was also considered acceptable for non-profit organizations.
• But, any public relations activity by government became immediately suspect.

As a result, the federal government which had already taken its first step with the passage of the Gillett Amendment, began backing even further away from public relations.

More accurately, the federal government backed away from the term "public relations." It didn't necessarily stop practicing public relations; it simply gave these activities new and less-offensive and more public-spirited labels. The most often-used and wide-spread euphemism for public relations was "public information."

Within a matter of a few years, and even moreso today, a search of the job titles used in almost every federal government agency will reveal absolutely no public relations positions but multitudes of

public information officers,
public information specialists,
public affairs managers,
public affairs officers,
publication specialists,
communication specialists,
community facilitators,
community relations coordinators,
constituent liaisons,
client relations managers,
and dozens of other types of communication specialists.

A now decades-old study by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget found over 5,000 federal employees officially designated as "information specialists" and estimated that the total number of federal employees doing work that would be considered public relations in the private sector would be at least five to seven times that number.

And, as is true of so many other aspects of government in the United States, the public relations patterns set by the federal government were interpreted as virtual mandates by state and local governments.

• A variety of state and local laws and regulations were enacted to limit or prohibit public relations efforts by government, and many of them are "strictly enforced" today.
• There are very few people or agencies at any level of government who have the words "public relations" in their titles or their job responsibilities, but there are thousands of public information officers and public information specialists throughout state and local governments.

 

Government communicators link government and the people.

It may sound overly dramatic, but government communicators can and do make life or death differences in people's lives. Consider, for instance,

• needy people who learn they're eligible for free food or medical care by reading government produced and distributed brochures for Food Stamps, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplementary Food Program, the Surplus Commodity Distribution Program, Medicare, or Medicaid;
• victims saved from further abuse, or even death, because television public service announcements about child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse publicized toll-free hotlines and encouraged people to use them for reporting abuse;
• people saved from using defective products -- whether a bean bag inadvertently filled with toxic beans or a car whose fuel line is likely to rupture and start an engine fire -- because of news releases or press conferences by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, or their counterparts at the state or local levels.

Not all government communication is so meaningful or so dramatic. There's lots of dull, boring, and routine communication too. The explanation of how to fill out new tax forms, the announcements about new hours at the drivers' license bureau, this year's hunting seasons, or the new fees for obtaining birth certificates, and the publicity about the appointment of new members to various commissions and boards are just a few examples.

Whether it's dull and boring or dramatically life-changing, the information, issues, and policies that government communicators deal with do directly and often significantly affect the everyday lives of their publics.

 

Working in government is different than working in business.

Regardless of a government employees' duties -- whether they involve communication, accounting, or janitorial services -- and regardless of the level or agency of government for which they work, there are four characteristics that make working for government very different than working for a profit-motivated business or even a private, non-profit organization. These differences affect government communicators at least as much as, if not more than, they affect other government employees.

The unique characteristics of government employment which are more fully discussed on another linked page include:

• the direct and powerful impact the work has on large numbers of people,
• the diverse and multiple levels of accountability that extend all the way to the general public and often involve a civil service commission or similar agency,
• the fish bowl environment in which government employees work, and
• the fiscal constraints placed on government spending.

 

Considering a job or a career in government communication?

At the entry level, and at least part way into middle-level communication management positions, government salaries are fairly comparable to those in the private sector. In some instances, the cash salary offered government employlees may be less than that offered private-sector employees, but government employment benefits such as health care, tuition reimbursement, retirement programs, and long-term job security are usually much better than the private sector offers.

A new "public information officer" or "communication specialist" going to work for most state agencies or mid-sized to large cities in 2018 should expect to be offered a starting salary in the $40,000 range, plus or minus 15 percent.

They can also expect predictable and reliable salary increases defined by the civil service or merit employment system. A public information specialist who simply does his or her job and avoids unsatisfactory ratings during annual reviews is essentially guaranteed a set raise every year.

This kind of security and automatic salary increases is very attractive to some people, but the idea of a set raise is a disincentive to others. While the raise is essentially guaranteed, it's also rigidly limited. No matter how hard you work and how much you excel, your raise will be no more than co-workers who do only the minimum necessary to avoid an unsatisfactory rating.

At higher levels, as you move away from being a public relations technician -- e.g., a writer, editor, special events coordinator, video producer, etc. -- and become more of a public relations and communication manager, government salaries quickly begin to lag behind those in the private sector.

• A public information bureau chief's salary, for instance, tops out dramatically below a director of public relations for a mid-size or larger corporation.
• To cite just one example: I know a state agency director of communication who had more than 15 years of managerial experience and supervised a half-dozen information specialists, editors and graphic designers. A few years ago, he was earning just about $85,000 per year, when a headhunter invited him to apply to be head of a corporate public relations department with comparable responsibilities and employees where his salary would be more than $200,000 per year.

But, there's much more involved in job satisfaction than money. Many high level government communicators claim that their most meaningful "compensation" comes from being personally involved in decision-making that affects people's lives. Many of them also admit that they enjoy the ego gratification that comes from rubbing elbows with big-city mayors, governors, or even the President of the United States.

It's certainly not for everyone, but being a government communicator can be a very satisfying long-term career for some public relations professionals or a short-term experience-builder for others.