Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick​ | 1

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Esther Abel

April 16, 2020

COM270: Lit Review

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“When I became the White House Press Secretary…” ​ These are words that many

communications students dream to write one day as the opening line to their future memoir yet

few will actually get to do so. The press secretary position comes with television fame, quotes in

news stories and on radio stations frequently. But press secretaries have to balance not only the

media outlets, but also the message being portrayed from their boss and the people they are

trying to reach. For the President and other elected government officials, the press secretary is a

position held in confidence for advice, with great dignity for domestic and foreign relations, and

adequate rhetoric to handle the media. For news organizations, the White House remains today

the prestige beat it has been since at least the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, where on

Capitol Hill, members of Congress are easy to locate and interview (Kumar, 2008). ​Press

secretaries fulfill a much wider role than simply speaking to the media in a briefing room on

behalf of their bosses to the public as a whole, but to get their message out, they are not using the

technology available to communicate to the greatest potential.

Press Secretaries and their Bosses

Press secretaries are the spokesperson for the top governmental officials in the country.

Most often, we think of the White House press secretary, but cabinet members, executive

departments and Congressional officials also have their own press secretary. The elected

official, whether that be a Congressmen or the President, once elected to office, have to change

their message from the campaign trail to the elected office. When a person goes from candidate

to elected official, the press secretaries must change the mindset of the public, which is not an

easy task (Miller& Riechert, 1998).

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Dana Perino, former George W. Bush press secretary said, ​“your goal as a candidate [is

to] define others before they can define you.” This is the goal of the campaign spokesperson as

well as the press secretary, but the press secretary moreover must defend that definition through

the actions that the new elected official has done.

In a study by Miller and Riechert in 1998, they found through studying the media and

candidates respectively that neither the candidates nor the media are accurate in their

assessments of how news media operate. This in turn makes it more difficult for the press

secretaries to please their boss or the media. The study also found that the candidates

contributed to the “hoopla and horse race” trivia to media campaign which the public enjoys,

because it makes the public feel connected to the candidate. However, for the press secretary,

balancing the “hoopla and horse race” information with the important government policy,

foreign relations and national security information can be difficult but it absolutely vital because

relating to the candidate is needed to win elections, but fulfilling the promises and

communicating the tough issues will not only win re-elections but also achieve the goal of the

elected office.

Press secretaries have the reputation of being the spokesperson for a political figure.

However, press secretaries have several other roles depending on the time of day or specific

situation they are handling. Some of the roles include being a part of the legislative strategies,

determining policies, communication strategies and planning and speaking on the record

(Downes, 1998; Kumar, 2001). Speaking on the record is played out directly in the public eye

through the media in which the interest of the President, Congressmen, or other government

leader is shared, while the other three roles take place behind closed doors and with internal
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publics, like employees and fellow congressmen (Kumar, 2001). Legislative strategies and

determining policies can also be categorized as administrative work which is logistical and takes

place in daily meetings with the President, committees and individuals. This involves

specifically four daily meetings with the press corps (Kumar, 2001). While aiding in policies is

required some of the time, a group of recent former press secretaries say that one needs to be a

press secretary, not an advisor (“Live from the White House: Making the News,” 2011).

Doing too much can tarnish a press secretary’s reputation with either their boss, constituents or

the media. That being said, the press secretaries have a responsibility to warn their bosses of

potential media traps or headlines.

It is crucial for government officials to communicate with their public, both foreign and

domestic, to ensure information pertaining to them. In the twenty first century, full of social

media, global connectedness and fake news, the public’s trust in both the government and media

outlets has decreased at an astounding rate ("Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019",

2020; "Trust in Media", 2002)! Public trust in government has decreased 56 points in the past

118 years and the media has dropped 40 points from 1972-2002 (“Public Trust in Government:

1958-2019”, 2020). Lack of trust in governmental institutions can be traced back to faulty

communication between institutions and constituents. However, legislators are now hiring more

communication experts in both permanent staff positions as well as election campaigns (Hesse,

1981). This means that there is a dedicated staff person whose responsibility is solely on

communicating with the different publics.

Press secretaries and communication staffers also must be aware of how their message

will be interpreted with their voting publics. “Rural senators become quite accurate in their
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assessment of the voting public, and opinion agreement seems to become a condition to

re-election. Urban senators, on the other hand, do not display the same sensitivity to

constituents” (Hesse, 1981, p. 37). This also means that the press secretary must be in

communication with their boss, as well as their constituents. While that communication may not

take place through face to face conversations, but rather social media, emails, polls or constituent

mail.

Press Secretaries and the Media

Technology has both pros and cons used to communicate with the public. ​Mike McCurry,

President Bill Clinton’s former press secretary describes one of the problems press secretaries

face with technology during the age of information and says, “how do we slow down the transfer

of information so that people can actually get information and use it—get coherent information

and use it effectively—to make decisions. Whether they are writing a story to inform the public,

whether articulating policy” (Live from the White House: Making the News”, 2011). Social

media, especially Twitter, has made the job of the press secretary at times easier and other times,

more difficult. Twitter bypasses the need for television to convey breaking news alerts or

“fireside chats” with the public. In a matter of 240 characters, the public can know the news of a

tragic death, the winning team of a championship game, the latest update on the national security

bill, or memes and videos can go viral within hours. The instant notification for breaking news

however does nothing for McCurry’s earlier concern of actually processing the massive amounts

of information thrown out the public. For press secretaries, this means that the quality of their
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message must surpass the other messages that are being sent through the different media

channels. (Candia, 2013)

There would be no need for press secretaries if the public did not have a desire to know

what is going on in the government and the majority of the information the public receives is

through media outlets. A study performed by Cook found that press operations, conducted by

Congressmen, were not typically directed toward the national media but rather to the local

media. “One would then hypothesize that the perceived value of local media is constant across

offices, but that the percieved value of national media is far more variable.” (1988, p. 1053)​ Not

only does the press secretary have to worry about the local news organizations, but also foreign

governments. ​Dana Perino, said that when you are in the briefing room, one must remember that

you are not only answering the questions of the twenty some people there, but the millions of

people, in both the United States as well as foreign countries ("Live from the White House:

Making the News", 2011).

Each media outlet can only be as useful as the public who uses it. The press secretary has

to understand what public is looking at what media sources and then craft the correct message

according to the people who will see it. The value of a media source is determined by the goals

and message a spokesperson wished to convey (Cook, 1988). Mike McCurry, President Bill

Clinton’s press secretary said, “We’re in the twenty-first century now, and we’re using a

nineteenth-century format to educate the press corps. Every day, there is one person at that

podium doing a briefing for the press corps, and all the news is funneled in through the White

House and out to the American people. I think that is a totally antiquated way for the American

public to get its information, so we’ve got to reinvent the function of public information within
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government, and I think marginalize the role of the press secretary.” (“Live from the White

House: Making the News”, 2011)

In regards to candidacy versus an elected official and media use, the more exposer a

candidate gets, the greater chance they have of getting elected. “Literature indicates exposure is

simply a reflection of the amount of information passed along by the media about certain items;

it can be measured in the classic tradition of content analysis” (Hesse, 1981, p. 34). The media

and press secretaries are often at odds with each other, but use the conflict to test what the press

secretary is trying to project and what the media is going to report (Candia, Spinzi, Venuti,

2013; Clayman, Elliott, Heritage, Beckett, 2011).

The role of press secretaries is just as important in creating and maintaining image and

coverage as the representatives themselves (Gershon 2012). Press secretaries have been essential

in organizing the relationship between the media and the candidates by creating scheduled news

shifts, communication between the representatives and their constituents (Cook, 1988). Press

secretaries need to utilize technology in all aspects of their job, including with their boss, the

media outlets and social media, and their public.

Critical Evaluation

Based on the reviews of the studies conducted on press secretaries, there are two

limitations that I have seen. The first limitation is the use, or rather, lack thereof of social media.

Pew Research Center reports that “about two-thirds of American adults (68%) say they at least

occasionally get news on social media” ​(Shearer & Matsa, 2018). Understanding how press

secretaries utilize social media and get the news to their constituents is crucial in comprehending
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the job of a press secretary. ​ The second limitation is the communication between fellow press

secretaries in other departments and separate areas of government, both at the state and federal

levels, as well as their international counterparts. While the legislative role of a press secretary is

explored in a couple of studies, there is no research that examines the relationship between

agencies as well as the diplomatic relationship and influence a press secretary has (KUMAR, M.,

2001 & Downes, E., 1998). A study in the relationships between departments and diplomatic

relationships would show importance of a press secretary in completing policy and foreign

policy as it cannot be done by only the executive branch of government.

Future Direction for Research

The limitation to these studies makes the direction for future studies possible. While the

research collected on the topic of press secretaries is expansive, one specific area that needs more

research done is the impact press secretaries have on legislation and constituent voting. Several

studies discuss the importance of the relationship the press secretary fosters between their boss

and the media in response to news and spreading information from the government to the public

(​Clayman, S., Elliott, M., Heritage, J., & Beckett, M., 2011 & Cook, T., 1988 & Gershon, S.,

2012 & KUMAR, M. 2001 & Candia, S. D., Spinzi, C., & Venuti, M., 2013). However, there

are little to no studies that examine the influence the press secretaries have on legislation and

elections. A research question that could be asked to start this study would be ‘what role does a

press secretary play in the creation of domestic and foreign policy as it pertains to

communicating with Congressional press secretaries or international counterparts?’ An

advantage to this study is that press secretaries’ bosses would know learn how to better use the
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secretaries to not only communicate through the media, but also to communicate with others in

the government to advance policy.

Proposal

Creating a study that will answer the research question of how do press secretaries impact

legislation and constituent voting, I propose a study that will take a combination of both

qualitative and quantitative data and will be analyzed critically to pick out patterns and specific

areas press secretary’s impact. The study would look at focus group answers, survey questions

and historical data so that there would variety in research but be unanimity in the study results.

The population that would be interviewed would be both former and current press

secretaries from both the executive branch departments, the legislative offices and possibly state

and local communications directors chosen from a cluster sample. It would be important for the

population to be so broad because in order for the research question’s result to be consistent, the

data should span across the different departments as the role of press secretaries is generally the

same through locations.

For the qualitative research, a set of focus groups would be done with ten or so questions

regarding how important their relationship with legislators effects their job, and how being in

communication with constituents effects their specific job to communicate pertinent information

to the media. A focus group rather than an interview because press secretaries can feed off of

one another while growing a sense of consensus or see the differences from the different job

locations or the secretaries.

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For the quantitative research, a short survey with both open-ended and close-ended

questions would be sent to press secretaries all across the country. The survey would contain

mainly interval questions. This portion of the study would be useful for reaching the state and

local press secretaries who may not be able to attend a focus group. The results from this survey

would be analyzed and then calculated for statistical reliability as well as for finding patterns

among the participants.

The final part of this study would be a historical look at press releases, declassified

reports, and public records of communications between the offices of press secretaries and

different offices. Using an agreed upon code with content categories and units of analysis, these

documents would be able to be evaluated and sorted to show the relationship between and

content discussed between offices.

The independent variable in this study would be the press secretaries and the dependent

variable would be the individual impact they had. There are separate dependent variables; one is

the impact on legislation and the second is the impact the press secretaries had on constituent

voting. The reliability and validity of this study would be found in the coding of the three data

collection systems.
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