Linkages Between Public Relations Models and Communication Managers' Roles in Spanish Political Parties

Abstract

Studies of political and electoral communication usually focus on the strategic dimension of campaigns from a marketing approach. In these studies, public relations and communications are viewed as a set of techniques that serve political parties and other actors of the political scene, concentrated on media relations. This instrumental perspective is not in keeping with the structural dimension of organizational communication in the activity of political actors: political parties, pressure groups, and political leaders. From this point of view, during managing periods of governance and during electoral campaigns, the most applied communication form by political parties is structured in accordance with the major communication models founded by public relations theorist James E. Grunig: the press agent model, the public information model, the two-way asymmetrical model, and the two-way symmetrical model. This research shows the applicability of these models and its links with the roles of in-house political communicators in Spain according to the results of a quantitative survey focused on inside professionals who provide communicational services for the seven main political parties in this country.