Abstract
D.Tech
No transformation is subtler, yet more explosive, than the mega shift from an industrial to an information society. In an industrial society, the strategic resource is capital whereas in an information society, the strategic resource is information. These mega trends are evident, to a greater or lesser degree, also in South Africa. At the same time, South Africa has to meet the challenges inherent in the transition to participatory democratic government. Crucial in both these global and local challenges is the management of information and public opinion. One of the primary role-players in achieving this is the public relations (PR) practitioner.
Effective public relations depends in many ways on achieving the right balance between over-reacting and under-reacting to events in the environment, as they manifest, inter a/ia, in public opinion. The fundamental tool for achieving this balance in managing public opinion is information. This requires that information be utilised in a strategic way to manage the perceptions constituting public opinion.
PR practitioners working in the field of political communication in South Africa need to contribute to the establishment of a framework of political communication based on full acceptance of the requirements of a participative democracy. This involves, inter alio, improving access to information and developing efficient two-way communication between decision-makers and stakeholders.
The Free State Provincial Government Department of Finance, Expenditure and Economic Affairs identified the need to improve communication with its stakeholders. To achieve this, an appropriate communication strategy and supporting action plans had to be formulated. This communication strategy and action plans formed the point of departure of this study. Of particular importance for this study were the related principles of the systems management approach, the systemic approach to political communication and the two-way symmetric model of public relations. Both the systems management approach (from a public relations perspective) and the systemic approach (from a political communication perspective) emphasise the need to achieve equilibrium within the system by balancing communication input and output. The two-way symmetric model explains public relations as an attempt to adjust the socio-political environment to suit the political principal, as well as to help the political principal adjust to his/her environment. The PR practitioner plays a vital role in assisting his/her principal to achieve equilibrium and to adjust to the environment.
A starting point in evaluating whether communication equilibrium has been attained is to evaluate the communication processes in political public relations. One method of evaluating these processes is by means of a communication audit. The main aim of this study was to develop an evaluative model for political public relations. The objectives of the study were to determine whether the Department, as a political communication system, was achieving communication equilibrium by balancing communication input from its stakeholders with appropriate communication output. The study further recommended steps to achieve communication equilibrium and devised a means of monitoring and evaluating progress with implementation. It resulted in the development of a model for the attainment of communication equilibrium in accordance with the demands of the two-way symmetrical model of public relations.