1. PUBLIC AFFAIRS RELATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT
The PRACTICE

2. preview
Government activities at all levels have tremendous daily impact [negative or positive] on every kind of organization
Public affairs units help organizations anticipate and respond to issues affecting their activities and environment
It helps them lobby, build campaigns and shape public policy

4. What is public affairs
Public affairs is the aspect of public relations that deals with the political environment of organizations
It is sometimes called government relations
It helps organizations anticipate or respond to issues affecting their activities
It specializes in building public policy relationships between organizations and in public policy arena

5. Arena of public affairs
PA for not-for-profit organizations such as schools, libraries, foundations to influence regulations in their favour
PA in business because government plays the roles of stimulant, referee, rule maker, engineer, pursuer of social goals, defenders, provider, customer, controller etc

6. Public affair tasks
Information acquisition through fact finding mechanisms
Information processing through evaluations of options
Information dissemination
Fight fire with fire on the governmental relations front through sensitive ‘leaks’ to the media about government activities when boxed into a corner

7. Understanding the political system
Electoral activities – involves the elections of candidates favorable to an organization’s interests; plans are developed to help raise fund and canvas votes for the candidates such as the political action committee [PAC]
Legislative activities – working to gain or create support for favorable legislation and build opposition against unfavorable activities. Lobbying is the major avenue used here.
The understanding continue in next slides

8. Understanding the political system
Regulatory activities – fostering an understanding of the day-to-day workings of the organization and the regulators. The regulators are more difficult to influence because they are not elected
Politicking from the grass roots – this is done through grassroots lobbying and issue [advocacy] advertising where the organization canvas support from voters to help them elect people who will support their cause
More understanding the political system ahead

9. Understanding the political system
State and local public affairs – staying on top of issues, knowing the right PAC to contribute towards, cultivating the right media contacts should not only be done at the federal levels, but at the state and local levels
Internal political communication – involves PR practitioner who monitors government affairs and using in-house publications and other media to provide political instructions, increase employee awareness of political issues and encourage employee political involvement

10. Government public affairs
Government owes the citizens an understanding of issues and what roles they were to play in governance.
This necessitated setting up of public information officers in the US and Information officers in Nigeria
They help inform, educate and direct the citizens on government policies and services that are available and how the citizens can access them
They gauge public opinion and perform all the roles of the PR practitioners; most times they become too protective of the government of the day - NTA

11. Technology and government public relations
It enhances the two-way communication system
Web pages of government agencies could be created with adequate information to benefit the citizens
Websites can achieve the objectives of communicating with the publics and researchers; distributing large volume of information; publicizing and analyzing new policy; soliciting public comments

12. task
Make copies of Case Studies in Page for students to provide answers