How Central & State Governments Does Public Relations ?

The public relations in the government is quite different from PR practice in business and non-profit organizations. Government is an organ created by the statute and formed by the public. Public is a large community, complex organism collections of a diverse group of people. They can and do have profound effect on each other. Both the groups affect and are affected by their mutual interest.

The public for the government are wide and complex. It is composed of groups of doctors, lawyers, engineers, professionals, voters, political parties, opposition parties, weaker sections, labour, employees and other cross sections of society. Intimate and mutual knowledge of society’s various components is a major thrust of the government. Public vary, it is dual, complex, interlinked, so publicity and communications should be the activities of the government.

There was a time when government public relations was only a courtesy and received no priority. But governments today are finding that they cannot remain passive and cannot ignore to establish mutual relationship with the public. Government public relation was for years the neglected corner of the public relations profession. In recent years, this highly specialized area sprang into more vital prominence.

The Central and State governments across the country have established public relations departments, or expanded the existing departments to undertake the need for better relations with the public of various groups. At the same time, government departments specializing in public relations have increased. A number of developments, all of social, economic and political, have markedly altered the way and the style of government functioning. The public relations department of the government should strategically act as a liaison between the government and the public.

Governments, both Central and State, have been spending annually crores of rupees on several media to keep the public informed and maintain public relations. But still the PR efforts of many governments in serving the public have often failed in their objective to communicate and give publicity effectively about how their policies and decisions have been formulated and benefited the public.

The events of the past years, clearly indicates wide publicity and communication efforts of the government. Today, we live in an age of complicated social fabric in which religion, employees and various public groups at all levels are exerting much influence on political system, even shaking the system. So, no government can ignore the PR function. Perhaps, no other area of public relations has changed as much in recent years as Government Public Relations. And perhaps no other area is having so profound effect on the practice of PR. There are three basic ways in which PR is practiced in a country, namely: Press Relations, Community Relations and publicity.

Considering the country in its present nature of enormous size and diversity of culture and traditions, it is necessary to establish good relations between the government and the public by inculcating a feeling of oneness throughout the country. The country, at present is at the threshold of transformation by which the process of economic development and liberalization are brought about, opening new horizons in the area of public communication and relations.  

The last few years witnessed substantial growth in publicity and communication. The importance of informing the public and convincing the public, winning public support in today’s complex socio-economic and political set up cannot be overestimated. There is a lot of information with the government on public affairs which should be revealed and extended to the public. There should be a mechanism by which information must reach them. The public information programme has several segments which need to be considered.

The Public Relations practitioner works in public information and relations department, who represents the Government in front of Public. The vital role of a Public Relations Officer is to interact with the public. Thus, the importance of PR as a link between government and its public is well recognized particularly in democratic countries like India. Today, no matter how small or large, the type of political party is ruling, PR activities in the government are complex and difficult to perform.

The government through its public relations department owes a responsibility to report to the public regularly about the activities, policies and procedures of the government through various media. The public in return, should provide support and cooperation to the government. Only through such frequent interaction and mutual relationship, both the government and public can achieve positive sense of unity. So, the public information system and PR functions are important to the Central and State Governments including municipal corporations.  Public Relations also is equally essential in political campaigns.

Communications with the internal public of the Governments i.e. governments officials, is yet another dimension of Government Public Relations. The rivalry between branches of the government, between political parties and rivalry between the government and the press are important areas requiring world class public relations professionals. 

 

Objectives  of  PR in Government

 i. Constant public relations efforts to maintain high level of confidence and trust of public on government.

ii. Keeping the public aware of its plans, policies, its future prospects, the quality of service and effective use of public funds and the extent of public support and cooperation needed.

iii.Reporting on progress, development and achievements quickly, correctly and timely on events, benefits, physical and financial progress.

iv.Undertaking education, information and entertainment activities particularly in rural and backward areas through electronic mass media like films, overhead projectors, mobile vans, street plays etc.

v.To project major problems of the government and also telling about the methods in which the problems are solved.

vi.To narrow down the gap in outlook between urban and rural life and also in between one linguistic or ethnic group and others.

vii.To undertake publicity and information exchange so as to inculcate the feeling of oneness throughout the country.

viii.To maintain high level of confidence, trust in the government’s role towards social, economic, political and international issues.

ix. To shape public opinion and support opinion leaders. 

Government of India PR - Mediums of communication

The various mediums of communications that are available to the Government PR department are:

·                     Doordarshan 

·                     All India Radio (AIR)

·                     Directorate of Film Festivals

·                     Bureau of Outreach & Communication (erstwhile DAVP, DFP, S&DD)

·                     Regional Outreach Bureau

·                     National Centre of Films for Children and Young People

·                     Registrar of Newspapers of India

·                     Central Board of Film Certification

·                     Photo Division

·                     Press Information Bureau

·                     Publications Division

·                     Films Division

·                     National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)

·                     Press Council of India

Activities Designed by Government

·                     Press Publicity

·                     Field Publicity

·                     Songs and Drama

·                     Advertising

·                     Publications

·                     Exhibitions

·                     Information Centres

·                     Feedback services

·                     Community activities 

·                     Listening Cell

·                     Film Production

·                     Multimedia Campaigns

·                     Tourism Activities

·                     Cultural Affairs

·                     Rural Mass Communication

·                     Library Activities

·                     Audio- video publicity

·                     Research

·                    Padma  Awards 

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