SUBJECT: PRSK @50 UPSCALING EXCELLENCE & IMPACT

 The PRSK College of Fellows led by the able Chairman Mr. John Mramba;
 The PRSK Council led by Dr. Wilfred Marube;
 The PRSK Secretariat under the stewardship of the Chief Executive Officer, Sylvia
Mwichuli to whom I owe my gratitude for the honour of speaking to you today,
 Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning,

1. History is more than the path left by the past, it influences the present and shapes the

future, I feel privileged speaking to you today at a very defining moment and time for

which your organization and profession is more relevant than ever before. Your history

spanning the last 50 Years is certainly more than just a path long forgotten but it

constitutes an important collection of experiences; lessons and a record of continuous and

inevitable professional improvement over time, and that, makes you who you are today!

2. I wish that I was able to join you physically for more personalized engagements, in

fact, I am fond of the life at the coastal beaches, there is something always unique

about the life at zero feet above sea level, whenever I visit I have made an

interesting observation; Time doesn’t always seem to move hour to hour but from

mood to moment, At the coast, we live by the currents, plan by the tides and

follow the sun, its always fun under the palm tree therefore, trust me, I wish I

was there . However, despite all the niceties, the call of duty is always

distractingly louder and inevitably demanding personalized attention.

3. Ladies and Gentlemen: Mary C. Gannon, a professor at the University of Minnesota

captures the importance of public relations in the following quote, A business or an

organization without a face is a business/organization without a future. Similarly, Bill

 Gates, while capturing the importance of Public Relations stated, If I was down to my

last Dollar, I would spend it on Public Relations. Finally, Alvin. Adams, who was an

American Diplomat and Orator had the following to say about this very subject, Public

Relations are Key Component of any operation in this day of instant communications

and rightly inquisitive citizens.

4. Ladies and Gentlemen: against the backdrop of the statements by the three notable

thinkers and leaders, I wish to give, what I would think is the professional benchmark of

Public Relations professionals in our current world, which is full of fake news and

propaganda which is calculated to deceive the public. Distinguished guests, professionals,

its not uncommon for persons in the media fraternity to disseminate inaccurate

information with the drive to attract publicity, fame, or other forms of popularity.

Controversy has become the tool of trade for some Public Relations professionals who

are not motivated by desire to disseminate the truth or what is factual but what is

controversial and populist.

5. But what is Public Relations Ladies and Gentlemen? One famously quoted author,

Edward Bernays defines PR as "a management function which tabulates public attitudes,

defines policies, procedures and interests of an organization followed by executing a

program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. At the World Assembly

of the Public Relations Associations in Mexico City, it was agreed that public relations is

the art and science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling

organization leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve

both the organizations and the public interest. Additionally, the Institute of Public

Relations (IPR) in the UK defined Public Relations practice as "the planned and sustained
 effort to establish and maintain goodwill and understanding between an organization and

its publics, Finally, according to Eugene Decker, Public Relations is best defined as "a

planned effort to influence public opinion through acceptable performance and two-way

communications"

6. Ladies and Gentlemen: A keen analysis of the quoted definitions reveals three important

aspects of Public Relations…

a. The is a duty of care to be exercised

b. That Duty is two ways (it is owed to the General Public and the Organization in

which a PR professional is attached.

c. The third and most important aspect is the objective of maintaining goodwill

create public understanding and acceptance.

All the three aspects are critical in the cause of the work of a Public Relations

Professional. At this juncture, I challenge all of you to engage in a soliloquy

regarding the performance of your duties against the three important aspects that I

have drawn from the proposed definitions.

7. Ladies and Gentlemen: Let me speak to the Importance of Public Relations in respect to

Government Agencies and bodies vis a vis the interest of the public, I will do so by

quoting the International Association of Business Communication Team who begun by

assessing the theory of social responsibility as far as Public Relations is Concerned. They

posit that public relations is valuable both in individual organisations and also the society

at large, further, IABC team noted that that effective corporations are those who identify

and accomplish objectives that are essential to them and the public interest in their

business environment. A Public Relations Department should assist firms to improve

 relationships and resolve conflicts among organizations and the public, the department of

public relations facilitates effective implementation of projects.

8. In its research the International Association of Business Communication Team identified

three generic factors of efficient public relations; these principles include incorporating

strategic management in public relations; dominant coalition PR empowerment or senior

managers direct reporting associations; public relation integrated function and ensuring

that public relation is a function of the management which is distinct from other

functions. In their research they concluded that Organizations are using the PR function

to support other departments like marketing, HR, finance, law; the head of PR is a

manager and not a technician, although information technicians are vital in conducting

the daily communication tasks; a PR model which is symmetrical is essential; the internal

communication should be a symmetrical system; management role knowledge;

diversification of roles; excellent organization context. Using the theory of Social

Responsibility, they concluded that an effective public relation department is one in

which is participative in nature other than authoritative, activist pressures in the

environment and organic other than structures of mechanical management.

9. Ladies and Gentlemen: Your profession is critical to the appreciation; understanding of

the common man of the workings and performance record of government. PR

departments in government need to reenergize themselves especially against this age of

misinformation and fake news. To propose some potential approaches that can be used to

achieve this, Let me quote Grunig and Hunt who developed Four Models of Public

Relations, the models were developed to guide the creation of tactics, programmes and

strategies of an effective Public Relations model. They named the models as follows; the
 two-way symmetrical model; press agent/publicity model; public information model and

two-way asymmetrical model.

10. Ladies and Gentlemen: let me define each of them for ease of understanding and provide

a context;

a. The two-way symmetrical model is highly scientific and persuasive hence a better

method of communication with target audience; it proposes that research is

conducted by content creators to improve the understanding of the behaviors and

attitudes of audience, these guides strategy and creation of messages. This model

makes use of persuasive communication which is beneficial to the firm than

targeted persons; so, it is imbalanced or asymmetrical. This model is used mainly

in consumer marketing and advertising, which are aimed at improving the profits

of the organization. In this Model, the Public Relations practitioner should be a

link between the firm and the public, other than persuader.

b. The Model of Press agent or Publicity involves the use of persuasion by

communication professions to influence the opinions and thoughts of target

audience. Precision is not essential, and firms are not concerned with the feedback

from the audience, and they do not carry out research on analysis of the audience.

The mode of communication is one way. For instance, for instance, the

propagandist system developed in North Korea news media outlets

c. The model of public information does not involve manipulative activities like

those in the press agent but provides accurate data. Moreover, one way

communication is adopted. An audience analysis is not conducted by practitioners

to provide guidance in tactics and strategies. This model helps in creating press
 newsletters and releases, in situations where audiences are not mainly targeted or

studied beforehand

11. Ladies and Gentlemen: the wisdom we gather from the models as articulated above, is

that there are many approaches to attaining your objective as a Public Relations Expert.

Each model has its own usefulness and proper use of all the models will undoubtedly

enhance your work/objective as a Public Relations Expert.

12. Ladies and Gentlemen: The Democratic Experiment of our great republic is always

work in progress; I wish to speak to the contribution your society must have in

developing our democratic space. In the course of my research, I have found out that the

public relations in deliberative or discussive democracy and ours is one has been a focus

of debate over time. As you would note from my definitions of Public Relations,

Scholarly definitions of the term public relations, emphasize its potentially positive

influence, including its function as a means of exchanging ideas, as in ‘the

communication and exchange of ideas to facilitate change’ or its ability to ‘create (and re-

create) the conditions that enact civil society’ or to create and sustain connections

between individuals and groups, as in ‘the management of mutually influential

relationships within a web of stakeholder and organizational relationships.’

13. However, as we would all concede, the practice of Public Relations is most widely used

as a strategic tool for corporates and governments to realize self-interest and advantage in

competitive environments – contexts that do not necessarily lend themselves to

democratic engagement. PR practitioners are often obsessed with framing their objective

in terms of reputation management through communication, for instance, the Chartered

Institute of Public Relations in the UK argues that ‘in today’s competitive market,
 reputation can be a company’s biggest asset’ and defines public relations as ‘the

discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and

support and influencing opinion and behaviour.’ However, in a democratic space

theorists emphasize the importance of rational, reasonable, open and inclusive debates

among citizens to reaching legitimate decisions about how society should be governed.

This proposition distinguishes deliberation in a democratic space from being mere talk

and from distortion through manipulation and coercion. To my mind, you have moral

duty to encourage and promote deliberative discourse motivated to improve our

democratic space rather than condense or reduce it. As you celebrate 50 years of

existence this should be the hallmark of your contribution. I wish to challenge you and

especially the young people, to reclaim the place of public relations in democracy

emphasise its ability to generate social capital that connects individuals, groups and

organizations, its value to activist groups, and the normative importance of dialogue,

rather than demagoguery, to public relations

14. Ladies and Gentlemen: Public relations’ supportive role for democracy has been

aspirational for a long time now, there are certain aspects that have continuously posed

problems in light of this goal. Those aspects include; the fact that self-interest, rather than

the common good, has been the driving force; the fact that campaigns encompass a wide

range of types of discourse, not only rational argument; and the fact that public relations

tends to be used most widely by already dominant groups in society, further increasing

their power and distorting debates in favour of their interests. None of the criticisms are

easily addressed, not least because of the plentiful evidence of their validity. In fact, I am

happy to be addressing you at time when our country is experiencing heated discourses
 relating to the next years General Election, the obligation you have is a noble one, that of

enriching debate educating the public, calling for political accountability and challenging

and seemingly popular but deceitful promises. Ladies and Gentlemen: I urge you to resist

the temptation of being used to spread fake news and political deception, you are

privileged to hold the knowledge and power to influence public debate. Use that power

for a good cause. I wish to leave you reflecting on a quote by Stewart Stafford, that

“Honesty is the rarest commodity in the 21st century. No one looks to the political class

or journalists for truth these days. The average Joe seems to spend most of their time

peddling a ludicrous, flawless Facebook version of their lives. The peer pressure of

political correctness forgoes truth for the sake of groupthink. It seems that comedians

and writers represent the last bastion of candour out there today.” 

15. Thank You For Inviting me to Address you, Ladies and Gentlement, Enjoy your stay at

the Coast.