3. Find in Text 3 equivalents to the following Russian words and phrases:

общественное мнение; благоприятный климат; единогласное голосование; размещение материала (в газете, брошюре, и т.д.); жители; контейнер для мусора; общественный резонанс; двухуровневый подход; содержание; обочина дороги; травма спины; доля потребителей, ответивших по купону.

4. According to Text 3 are the following statements true or false? If they are false, say why.

1. Carol Nation works out public affairs project.

2. Preparing her projects Carol Nation uses human interest to attract readers.

3. The institutional approach was the basic principle of her pilot project.

4. Carol Nation considers that it is the content of the message, not the layout that makes her brochures a success.

5. In her brochure Carol Nation explained people how the new container influenced their health.

6. Carol Nation’s project resulted in melees, public hearings, and controversy.

Text Discussion

1. Comment on the following:

“Good newspaper techniques help sell public affairs programs”.

2. Identify the strategy decisions Carol Nation made in her pilot project.

3. Think of any examples of public affairs projects in your region.

Over to you

In small groups, do a public affairs project of your own.

Section 4. Lobbying

If you want to find out the real information, if you want a breadth of opinion, call the lobbyists who are for it and the lobbyists against it. You'll get an education in a hurry. They'll give you all the best arguments on both sides.

James A.McClure

Starting up

1. What is lobbying?

2. What are lobbyists engaged in?

3. Can you think of the names of famous lobbyists?

Read Text 1 and find out if the author thinks lobbying to be an ethical activity.

Text 1

Lobbying

An even more specialized subset of public affairs is that devoted to direct attempts by individuals or private interest groups to influence legislative and regulatory decisions in government—lobbying. To some, even some public relations professionals, lobbying is an ugly word meaning the manipulation of government for selfish ends. While the First Amendment to the US Constitution protects the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances, federal and state laws, e.g. Lobbying Act (1946) regulate lobbying by requiring those whose principal activity is petitioning the government to register and to report income sources and expenses, and that groups whom they represent make similar reports. The efficacy of these laws is doubtful. Especially difficult to regulate is any kind of indirect lobbying – such as group activity designed to influence government by shaping public opinion.

The registration laws are enforced with varying degrees of strictness, however. These laws are reactions to past attempts by powerful corporate and special interests to apply pressure and to seduce lawmakers and government officials. Lobbying remains, nonetheless, an accepted means for giving citizen groups, associations, labor unions, corporations, and other public and special interest groups access to government decision making. Such was the case when eighteen-year-olds got the right to vote as a result of an intensive lobbying effort, first to pass the Voting Rights Extension Act of 1970 and then to ratify the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971.

Lobbyists must have a thorough knowledge of the legislative process, of how governments function at all levels, and of the lawmakers and officials themselves. As these often are not part of most public relations practitioners' traditional stock-in-trade, lobbying is many times delegated to specialized lawyers and professional lobbyists, often ex-legislators. One recent listing of such specialists in the nation's capital included 10, 000 names!

Because lobbying deals with relations with government, however, it is conceptually part of the public relations function of an organization. In practice, lobbying is closely coordinated with other public relations efforts directed to nongovernmental publics whose voices are also heard by lawmakers and officials in government. And in its primary role-serving as a credible advocate and reliable source of information-lobbying is similar to other public relations efforts. The differences are seen in how tightly the process is regulated and scrutinized at federal and state levels, and the relatively small and well-defined publics to whom the program is directed.

Most lobbying takes the form of information designed to persuade, not unmarked envelopes stuffed with cash, lavish parties, and weekend outings.

And no law effectively stops all that some see as abuses of the right to petition government. The First Amendment protects petitioning of government, based on the desire to keep government open to all those affected by proposed legislation and government regulation. Lobbying is an outgrowth of such a democratic system functioning in a pluralistic society, but it must be noted that the money and power of special interests pose a serious problem.