ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the purposes of government public relations. It shows how government communicators at all levels can incorporate all three major government public relations purposes: the mandatory (media relations, public reporting, and citizen responsiveness), the pragmatic (customer and client responsiveness and outreach activities), and the political (increasing public support), as desired, into one master document. Strategic communications have been used in formal government communication campaigns for more than a century. The communication plan must be formalized and specific tasks or tactics must be outlined to support the identified strategies, objectives, and goals. These are the actual messages to be distributed and the tools or media by which messages are disseminated. In addition, communication plans should be dynamic documents that are evaluated on an ongoing basis and adapted accordingly to meet objectives and goals.
