Through interest articulation and interest aggregation the public perception of a government is determined through quantitative and qualitative analysis. This relates to the Public Relations function of “anticipating, analyzing, and interpreting the public opinion and attitudes" (Pahwa 2022). When factoring in the Structural Functional Theory into Public Relations, it becomes evident that Political Science has the capacity to employ its functions to manage the domestic environment, its bureaucracy and the foreign ecosystem. Community Relations can be defined as, “handling the social aspect of the brand and establishing a positive reputation in the social niche like environment protection, education, etc.” (Pahwa 2022). This means that through the system functions of the government, communication, socialization and recruitment the domestic environment interact with the structure of the government to gain input so that the demands of the people can be met. Once input are collected, these go through the process functions within the government structure which could then be a form of internal relations. Internal Relations can be defined as “counselling the employees of the organization with regard to policies, course of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility. Cooperating with them during special product launches and events” (Pahwa 2022). Input go through a process of interest articulation, interest aggregation, policy creation and policy implementation (Bingham., et al. 2012). These are essentially parts of the process of Internal Relations wherein Internal Relations seeks to affect the bureaucracy. From a Public Relations perspective the functions that could be used here include “public outreach and media relations events” (Pahwa 2022), “crisis public relations strategy” (Pahwa 2022) - contingency planning, and “dealing with public groups and other organizations with regard to social and other policies” (Pahwa 2022).
Lastly, per the Structural Functional Theory the government structure has policy functions which then it manages government relations of which are a part of Public Relations. The policy functions include regulation extraction distribution (Bingham., et al. 2012). This means that with regards to Public Relations, the structure of the government already employs its proponents within its structure and in relation to foreign governments in receiving feedback and henceforth Government Relations can be defined as “representing the brand to the government with regard to the fulfilment of policies like corporate social responsibility, fair competition, consumer protection, employee protection, etc.” (Pahwa 2022). Government Relations from a Public Relations perspective is depicted via press releases and speeches or rhetoric.
“Public Relations is a subset of Marketing” (Pahwa 2022) it is a formal discipline which employs advertisement as a tool by which to spread awareness about a particular subject matter. Subject matters can include goods and services. In the case of Political Science however, governments have traditionally employed what is referred to as propaganda to mobilize the domestic environment into certain objectives. An example could be the propaganda regarding Uncle Sam in the USA or the creation of the American Dream or russkiy mir in Russia. With that mentioned it becomes clear that propaganda is a subset of advertising. It is the fact that propaganda does not have formal legislation to stipulate its activity, with that said, if there is a legislation it would most likely be the legislation pertaining to freedom of speech and freedom of expression under the Canadian Constitution. The use of Propaganda is employed by governments against the legislations of the Competition Act and the self-regulation practices of the discipline of Marketing. Federally, the Competition Act enforced by the Competition Bureau of Industry Canada stipulates offenses in Marketing of which include and are not limited to “price fixing, bid rigging, price maintenance, price discrimination, predatory pricing, misleading advertising, refusal to deal, and deceptive practices” (Hair 2006). Further the discipline of Marketing employs self-regulatory measures in order to monitor honesty and fairness. The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, The Canadian Broadcasting Association, The Canadian Marketing Association all have different approaches to self-regulation. Further, businesses that are a part of the Better Business Bureau voluntarily agree to maintain fairness in business.
Modern political parties employ marketing within their party to increase political participation. In democracies this becomes very important because an involved public means the needs and wants of the people can be met. By having an involved public, social movements are more able to mobilize for social equity and equality. Through an involved public proponents of social justice can serve the benefit of the citizen. Modern political parties in Canada have decided to use marketing to action “market-oriented politics and the permanent campaign” (Gagon, et al. 2017). Market oriented politics means that “modern- electoral professional parties developed the capacity to employ polling and big data analytics …. that allow researchers to identify the characteristics, interests, and political attitudes of …. voters” (Gagon, et al. 2017). These parties employ “market intelligence” and “market segmentation” to their rhetoric, policies, and programs to appeal to segments of the electorate (Gagon, et al. 2017). The “permanent campaign” on the other hand means that, political parties are at “a state in which the strategies and tactics of elections are used between elections regardless of how unlikely it is that an election could be called” (Gagon, et al. 2017). Such aspects of the permanent campaign include and are not limited to perpetual fundraising, media and advertising strategies such as newspaper, television, social media etc. In their bid to employ marketing techniques, it serves as a method by which Public Relations becomes an integral part of politics and the discipline of Political Science.
As it pertains to smaller firms, propaganda can be used independent from the discipline of Marketing. Essentially propaganda is a function of communication within Marketing as is the case with advertising when used in that discipline. Propaganda becomes as subset of advertising as firms use propaganda to “influence the way of thinking, as well as the attitude of people” (Lorecentral 2018). Propaganda come in various forms of which include articles, photos, voice overs and videos. The difference between advertising and propaganda are as follows: Advertising involves “the set of commercial strategies that serve as a tool for marketing” whereas propaganda “influence[s] the way of thinking, as well as the attitude of people” (Lorecentral 2018).
What distinguishes the profession of Marketing against those that simply use propaganda are the consumer protection measures used to safeguard fairness and honesty as mentioned above. As mentioned the legislation pertaining to the discipline of Marketing is in place because of these consumer protection purposes henceforth under the guise and representation of the idea of "consumer protection" the discipline of Political Science through its functions (system, process and policy) and through the values of equality, equity, etc. of which are policy objectives, under the aforementioned pretense can lawfully enact and implement "marketing" practices provided such values are used and these are then referred to as propaganda. This results in the legal use of the disciplines function of Marketing Communication a part of the discipline and not the whole discipline.
WORK CITED
Gagon, A. et al.
2017. Canadian Parties in
Transition. Ontario, Canada. University of Toronto Press.
Grewal, D. et al.
Marketing. USA. Mc Graw- Hill Ryserson.
Hair, L. et al. 2006. Marketing. Ontario, Canada. Thomson Nelson.
Lorecentral. 2018. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND PROPAGANDA? Retrieved from: https://www.lorecentral.org/2017/10/difference-advertising-propaganda.html
Pahwa A. (2022).
What Is Public Relations? PR Functions, Types, & Examples. Retrieved from: https://www.feedough.com/what-is-public-relations-pr-functions-types-examples/
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