The Use of Public Relations in Managing Government Information and Reputation: A Case Study of Federal Ministry of Information

Abstract

Government public relations plans a crucial role in keeping the public informed. Government public information office rs seek citizen approval of government programs, help explain what citizens want from the government, strive to make government responsive to citizens' wishes, and attempt to understand and affect public opinion . Public relations operatives are pervasive in political campaigns, promoting both public understanding of candidates and candidates understanding of publics. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both - James Madison Our preliminary investigations revealed that the Nigeria Government does not have public relations practitioners in the Federal Ministry of information that can stand as the spoke men of the government in reputation management it also revealed that the Nigeria pattern of communication is indoctrination, not in the proper perspective of public relations progression.

This study was therefore carried out in order to X-ray the role of public relations in managing government information and reputation. Specifically, the objective of the study was to determine the use of public relations in managing government information and reputation in the Federal Ministry of information. The research method adopted was survey method using a structure research questionnaire. The study demonstrated the degree of influence the independent variable, public relations, had on the dependent variable, government information and reputation, with the Federal Ministry of information as our case study . It also found that good decision making and employee efficiency were results of the application and inculcation of public relations. It was further discovered that the Federal Ministry of Information does not make adequate use of trained professional public relation managers of practitioners.