| Public relations is a critical function of a democracy as government must create policies and programs, generate awareness, inform, encourage input and engagement, solicit support, and measure results. Furthermore, government has a responsibility to protect and promote public interest. Thus, public administrators must practice public relations. However, existing models developed in the corporate context make practicing public relations in government challenging.;This study examines the differences between the public and private sectors and advocates a new public relations framework, allowing government to practice public relations more effectively. Although research has discovered differences between the two sectors, there has been little attempt to create an alternative model of public relations for government use. This is important research since new models of governance and administration have engaged citizenship at the root of their practice and public administrators are tasked with increasing public participation in environments characterized by cynicism and distrust. Today, public relations must be able to assist administrators with the task of establishing and maintaining relationships with citizens.;Based on the review of literature in both the communication and public administration disciplines and findings from this study, which utilized interviews with practicing public communicators in city and county government in the state of Ohio, the author proposes an alternative framework of public relations for the public sector. This new model, entitled the Government-Citizen Relationship Framework, recognizes the differences between the public and private sectors, assimilates the study findings, and incorporates an endogenic tradition by utilizing both the relationship dimensions in the relational theory of public relations and public participation decision making to help establish relationships with citizens and build community.;This study attempts to fill the gap in the research, contribute to theory building in the communication and public administration disciplines, and offer praxis to public administrators so they can accomplish both pragmatic and democratic public relations. |
