When compared to corporate public relations, political public relations are still a new field of study, which nonetheless has a great development potential. This article presents a reflec-tion on public relations in the political sphere, by remembering its conceptual grassroots and studying the challenges imposed on its practice by the new media. Grounded in the relationship management theory and in the ideal of symmetrical and dialogic communication, this article, presents possible paths for applied research in the field of political public relations.
Grounded in relationship management and political public relations theory, this study takes a critical look at politician-citizen online relationship building in non-electoral periods. Using the example of Portuguese political parties as a case study, participatory tools available on parties' websites, the interactive exchange observed and interviews with political communication managers are analysed to reflect on the Internet's potential for heightening citizen participation. Main results indicate that providing information is a predominant function over promoting interaction and that political parties offer online spaces for citizens to discuss and debate online but hardly join the conversation.
The diversity represented in this book, not only in respect to author nationality, but also in theoretical and empirical approaches, reflects one of the most salient features of the European Communication Research and Education Association: Organisational and Strategic Communication Section's identity. The spectrum of themes analysed in this collection – crisis communication, government communication, organisational communication and social media, corporate social responsibility, health media relations – demonstrates the range and vitality of organisational and strategic communication research in Europe.
As government is both a public and a political organization the goal of communication can thus be complex. Government communication balances between political marketing and the noble aim of government public relations – inform citizens and promote bidirectional communication. The aim of this article is to discuss the evaluation criteria of government communication, both theoretically and applied, based on the ethics of virtues. Instead of focusing the ethical analysis on the consequences of action (utilitarianism), or on a list of duties (deontological ethics), it is argued that the true foundation of moral life and ethical-political coherence lies in the character of the agent, be it the politician or the public relations professional. This argument is illustrated by a recent example of the communication from the Government of Portugal. ; Como o governo é simultaneamente uma organização pública e política, o objetivo principal da sua comunicação é complexo. A comunicação governamental oscila entre marketing político e a finalidade mais nobre das relações públicas governamentais – informar os cidadãos e promover uma comunicação bidirecional. Neste artigo, debate-se os critérios de avaliação da comunicação governamental, tanto a nível teórico como aplicado, a partir da ética das virtudes. Em vez de se centrar a análise ética nas consequências da ação (utilitarismo), ou numa lista de deveres (ética deontológica), defende-se que o verdadeiro fundamento da vida moral e a coerência ético-política se encontra no carácter do agente seja ele o governante ou o profissional de relações públicas. Este argumento é ilustrado com um exemplo recente da comunicação do Governo de Portugal. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Despite it being a debated issue in recent decades, there is in fact no consensus regarding the potentialities of the Internet for the strengthening of citizens' political participation and – by extension – of democracy itself. Nonetheless, this "new medium", and, in particular, its Web 2.0 version has become the cornerstone of communication strategies for both political parties and their candidates. Several questions emerge from the debate about the impact of the internet on political participation. First of all, the very concept of political participa- tion. Despite its importance in the theory of democracy, this concept is not always easy to define with rigor particularly when it comes to the form and boundaries of such participation. Actually, the ultimate issue is whether we are currently witnessing a "crisis of participation" or quite the contrary, the rise of alternative forms thereof. Secondly, the debate about the so-called "crisis of democracy" is also central when thinking about political participa- tion in our times. Democratic societies are experiencing a democratic deficit, to a large extend a crisis of confidence in traditional political parties, by which citizens feel misrepresented and hence alienated from righteous participation in their political destiny.
