The use of public relations has had a major influence on American Democracy.....
The reason Public Relations (PR) has had a significant effect on American democracy, is because when government officials are portrayed in the media in a negative light, they will quickly call a press conferences in order to spin the publicity in their favor. In other words, Public Relations is used to both establish and promote a favorable relationship between an Institution, Organization and the Public.
For instance, President George W. Bush's P.R. representatives launched a campaign to influence the way the American people view the president's decision to go to war with Iraq. For example, President Bush went to Iraq to meet with American troops who has been wounded during battle. This campaign was used to sway the way the American people viewed President Bush's administration, as well as, his War On Terror in Iraq. Another way that public relations can help influence the American Public is through the use of photography and video during the President's visit to the U.S. troops in Iraq. These images make the event of the President going overseas to visit the troops more concrete, because the American people can view these images in newspapers and on television broadcasts.
Another example of the use of public relations and American democracy is when the gas prices started to rise due to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The original reason for going overseas was to spread democracy to the people of Iraw and Afghanistan. However, this action affected American democracy in a significant way, because the war on Iraq and Afghanistan caused the rise of gas prices changed the way consumers purchased goods and services. In order to calm the American Public's anguish about the rising prices of gas, President Bush said, "If he had a magic wand he would say.....Ok drop prices! I'd Do that...But there is no magic want to wave right now." In my opinion, this was a horrible public relations attempt, because this statement gave satirical political shows, such as, "The Daily Show with John Stewart", and my show "Psycholitiks", ammunition to show the American public how incompetent our President really is.
Another form of Public Relations is through the act of culture jamming......
Culture jamming is the use of "existing mass media to comment on those very media themselves, using the original communication method." The use of this method is to advertise propaganda, in order to establish interest in the public for a certain organization. In other words, culture jamming is a form of activism and a resistance movement to the "Hegemony of popular culture", which is based on the idea of "guerilla communication." For example, one form of culture jamming could be when Christian groups have taken corporate logos, such as, the Coca-Cola trademark, and made it read, "Jesus, he's the real thing." Another example of a culture jamming method is, "google bombing", which is a widespread effort to purposely influcen the association of specific keywords, which produces more hits for a particular industry or organization.
According to the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, "Growing numbers of observers contend that the dominant public role of our time has shifted from citizen to consumer." In other words, public relations effects the way consumers use entertainment, shopping, and other consumer activities. The use of commercial media and public entertainment venues offer environments that are carefully constructed to avoid politics and real world problems that might disturb these consumer impulses.
As a result, different forms of Public Relations, such as, Culture Jamming and Guerilla Communication, American Democracy has been affected and influenced in a significant way. Through the use of these methods, PR firms have found a way to saturate our social and political values, by manipulating our commercial environments. Thus, the public's opinions, views, and values have been shaped by organizations that target the public's need to consume.
