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THE
SPOKESPERSON: BETWEEN PROPAGANDA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
By Yushau A. Shuaib
March 7, 2007
It is not about politics, product launch
and cheap publicity. It is about image, reputation and editorial
judgement. It is a choice between propaganda and public relations.
Since information influences our attitudes to life, the kinds of
message we receive from organizations and individuals to a large
extent is of great concern to our livelihood.
Information comes in different forms.
While information that is not subjected to manipulation can be
positive and negative like electoral victory and earthquake or
economic prosperity and financial scandal, other news are processed
and manipulated by concerned interests to draw public attention. The
result of some of the processed information may also be encouraging
or off-putting. In an effort to maintain objectivity and balance
stories, the press allows contenders and competitors in public and
private sectors to express themselves freely. This genuine
generosity to utilize the media platform is abused by charlatans who
have little idea or lack experience on the ethics of public affairs
and the operation of the press. The media is awash with individual
egocentricity, personality clashes and commercialized reportage. Yet
as good as some of the subjects may be, the truth is not easily
decodable from the surface.
The desire to gain sympathy and
acceptability of the target audience, for the sole purpose of
winning patronage and support, make the roles of spokespersons, as
intermediary, inevitable in any given society and corporate
organization. While most spokespersons are expected to have
undergone some training on ethics of mass communication or in the
alternative acquire some experiences in public affairs and media
practice, what we get from some of their activities are balderdash.
Cheap publicities that have lately and
largely invoked public discourse are handiworks of propagandists who
defend the indefensible acts through fabrication, intimidation and
excessive exaggeration to manipulate public opinion. Propaganda
which many are not willing to associate with even though rampant as
the outputs of some spokespersons, is used to sell bad products,
hoodwink the consumer and pollute the air in most uncharitable and
wicked mien. It may not be necessary that one must acquire basic
elementary knowledge of mass communication, decency in choice of
language and action for the purpose of winning public support could
have been better deployed to, at least, give credibility and respect
to the spokespersons and their principals.
On the other hand, public relations is
the most acceptable process of establishing and sustaining mutual
and beneficial relationship with the general public by abiding to
the strict code of professional practice. A PR practitioner gauges
the public mood, conducts research and responds appropriately to
issues in the most dignified and matured manner. A respected
spokesperson, exemplified by trained public relations practitioners,
gives sincere advice, undertakes genuine reconciliation and handles
assignments professionally. He/she takes risk in defending his
principal, organization and their programme/products with pride,
conscious of the fact that there is tomorrow for men and women of
honour.
The influence of propaganda in creating
newsworthiness on its principals and opponents has pushed to the
background development journalism that could have addressed our
economic and industrial needs. There is little the editors and other
news gatekeepers can do to ensure that what they receive is
accurate, factual and authoritative information because of the
official designations of the sources, though they can easily
identify propagandists from public relations persons. It may also be
of importance to note that naked propaganda, sometimes as comic
relief and melodrama, sells the media because bad news is truly the
news for readership appeal and commercial purposes.
It was in realization of importance of
monitoring and regulating the practice and activities of
masscommunicators that professional bodies are established to update
members and new entrants on the rudiments, best practices and latest
thinking in the field. The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR)
and Nigerian Press Council (NPC) were also established for that
purpose. But unfortunately the NIPR, due to its internal wrangling
which was recently resolved, has failed to assert its power to
regulate, monitor and sanction quacks who give the profession a bad
name. We must be impressed by the activities of other professional
bodies that have effective internal mechanism to control influx of
ill-qualified and inexperience persons into their folds like the
Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Institute of Chartered Accountant of
Nigeria (ICAN), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Association of
Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria APCON and Nigerian
Guild of Editors. A credible professional body can reprimand chief
executive officers of private enterprises and even heads of
governmental organisations who flout the code of conducts of their
respective offices. It happens in civilized world to serve as a
deterrent.
The failure of relevant bodies to
checkmate officers responsible for information dissemination is one
of the great dilemmas the nation faces today. Instead of engaging on
issues of development and beneficial to the society, what is churned
out by expected spokespersons of public and private institutions are
abusive language, libelous statements, threatening directives,
intimidating harassment and childish expositions. It has gone to a
situation that those that were highly respected but who find
themselves as spokespersons, especially from the media and civil
society, have like chameleons changed overnight in defending the
indefensible as they refuse to advise their principals on the
implications of their utterances and actions that are detrimental to
public good. Most of them seem to be scared stiff to advise their
bosses as they append their signatures on handouts in the name of
press statements without bothering to digest the contents. Probably
due to the survivalist instinct of chop-i-chop they
shamelessly condone unethical, illegal and in some cases
unconstitutional demeanors just to be relevant not minding the dent
on their professional integrity and social responsibilty.
Surprisingly such officers after leaving the office disown their
bosses of being dictatorial.
While propagandists can engage in
anything just to remain relevant, it is painful the constraints
facing some genuine PR persons in discharging their duties. The PR
professionals deserve our sympathy as they are mostly ignored or
sacrificed for official exigency. The relevant professional bodies
too like Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Association
of Corporate Affairs Managers in Banks (ACAMB), Nigerian Guild of
Editors (NGE) and Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) should ensure
that their registered members are protected as they operate within
the tenets and code of their bodies.
Yushau A. Shuaib
Author of books on Financial PR
and Media Relations
Lives at Wuye Estate Abuja
yashaib@yahoo.com
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