Text 5. Railway Systems in Market Economy

Nowadays railway systems play an important transport role. To do so they must be punctual, provide high-density services, and be in harmony with the environment. In order to cope with the requirements of the market economy railways introduce new methods of management, commercial activities and tariff policy. Simultaneously, they build new high speed tracks and reconstruct the old ones. Railways renovate their fleet and put it into operation. Rail managers develop logistic chains and new types of combined transport.

Awareness of environmental issues, daily highway and airport congestion suggest railways a new role within transportation systems.

In the competitive transport market, railways should use their advantages. They include high speeds, urban rail services, combined transport, and container transportation.

The share of railways in the national transport sector depends mainly on realisation of the market requirements. It can also be affected by the degree of state intervention, tariffs and subsidies.

In the past Russian railways were highly centralised and were the part of the planned economic system. As the market economy with free markets and free price system had replaced the planned one, the old practice became invalid. Taking much of the previous experience, the Ministry of Railway Transport launched a skilled gradual programme of adaptation to the market economy.

In the light of today’s market Russian railways satisfy demand for transportation and enhance efficiency and quality of their services. They also integrate into the Eurasian transport infrastructure.

In order to meet the requirements of the market environment railways must show more efficiency and flexibility of their services. They are to cut costs, introduce new technologies, and modernise rolling stock.

Answer the questions:

1. What do railways introduce to meet the requirements of the market economy?

2. What is the function of rail managers?

3. Why is a railway network a competitive means of communication?

4. What factors suggest railways a new role within transportation systems?

5. What are the main advantages of the railways today?

6. What does the share of the railways in the national transport sector depend on?

7. How were Russian railways organised in the frame of the planned economy?

8. How is the market economy guided?

9. Who is responsible for adjustment of Russian railway network to the market environment?

10. What steps must be taken for the adaptation of Russian railways to the market conditions?

Модуль 8. Реклама и PR в деятельности государственных структур. Государственное и общественное регулирование рекламно-информационной деятельности. Взаимодействие органов государственного и муниципального управления со СМИ. PR и реклама во внешней политике. Реклама и PR на транспорте

Text 1. PR and Advertising in Government Institutions

The term “Public relations” means working with public opinion, influence it in a way that is positive to an organisation. Nowadays public and municipal agencies face the need to conduct active information policy. That is why the establishment of effective public relations is an important part of public administration. That is way sate agencies and municipal authorities have opened special press services, press centres and PR departments to conduct their policy. Some regional public administrations tend to collaborate with independent PR agencies because of the short term objectives such as an election campaign. PR specialists or those whom we call press secretaries, information officers, public affairs or communication specialists keep people informed about the activities of state agencies and offices.

In the UK every minister is in charge of the PR policy of his ministry. PR activities are regulated not only by departmental PR-services, but also by the Central Office of Information, which helps specialists of the public sector deliver policy objectives and public services efficiently and effectively from a network of offices across the UK. As part of the Government Communication Network, the Central Office of Information sets standards, offers guidance on digital engagement, shares knowledge and expertise. The COI is uniquely responsible for producing and distributing information materials and for delivering a special government website Directgov that provides access to public sector services.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors in the USA is an organisation devoted to “public diplomacy”. It is responsible for all non-military international broadcasting sponsored by the US government. Thus, public affairs specialists in the US Department of State keep their citizens informed of the US position on foreign issues.

In Russia there are three main levels of state-operated PR bodies - federal, regional and local. The federal level PR body has the widest authorities and functions, while the regional level PR office is more effective, though its sphere of influence is narrower in comparison with that of the federal one. Local or municipal PR agencies are mostly implemented by social institutions, such as organisations of disabled people, veterans or mothers of large families and their main mission is to maintain people's trust.

The most developed federal PR institution in Russia is the President's PR administration, which involves such substructures as the Public Relations Department, the Press-Service department, the Protocol Department and so on. The President's PR administration is responsible for providing analytical and propagandistic materials to media. It coordinates the work of federal press centres, organises the relationship with media and implements the information policy of the country. Management in the public sphere is different from a similar role in the private sector, because of the inherent differences between the two sectors. One of the characteristics that differentiates the public and private sectors is the role and power of the news media or, more generally, the importance of external communication as an element of management. Thus, in the private sector, an organisation's target audience is a group of people interested in a certain product or service. As for the state sector, the spheres of actions and influences are wider, and the task is to deliver information to and build communication with various groups of a society. So, the main tasks for PR professionals working for the stated-owned bodies are:

1. to establish and maintain communication with people and organisations in order to study public opinion;

2. to gain public understanding on decisions made by the state agencies;

3. to influence the attitudes and behaviours of public by using research and behavioural insight;

4. to encourage public trust by identifying policies, procedures and concerns;

5. to build a favourable image of the government and officials;

6. to respond directly on citizens' enquiries and complaints;

7. to consult managers of government institutions on how to organise press-conferences and public presentations or how to prepare speeches for officials;

8. to improve the labour-management relations and build a friendly atmosphere inside the state organisation.

PR professionals perform a wide range of services such as preparing the annual reports, gathering information, handling news releases and other forms of media coverage, as well as managing promotions, special events, and speech writing. In the contemporary world government institutions need high-qualified professionals in the sphere of advertising and PR to encourage public trust and support.

Answer the questions:

1. What does the term “public relations” mean?

2.Why did state bodies and municipal authorities open special press services and different PR departments?

3. What are the main responsibilities of the Central Office of Information in the UK?

4. What is the US Broadcasting Board of Governors responsible for?

5. What are the main levels of the state-operated PR bodies in Russia?

6. What is the most developed federal PR institution in Russia?

7. How does management of public and private sectors differ?

8. What are the main tasks of PR professionals working for the stated-owned bodies?

9. What range of services do PR professionals perform?

10. Why do government institutions need high-qualified professionals in the sphere of advertising and PR?

Text 2. State and Public Regulation of Advertising and Information Activity

Advertising as well as other forms of marketing is a vital means of communication between marketers and customers. It helps to create efficient markets, both nationally and internationally, and brings significant benefits for both consumers and companies, as well as for society in general. In order to monitor and control advertising a number of different regulatory bodies have been set up. Many countries have established the Advertising Standards Authority, whose job is to examine complaints from the public, and establish whether or not a particular ad or campaign should be withdrawn.

Advertising regulation refers to the law and rules that define the ways in which products can be advertised in this or that region. Rules can define a wide number of different aspects, such as placement, timing, and content. Advertising law is a complex area. Many communities have their own rules, particularly for outdoor advertising.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission is the highest authority on the subject. States and more local political divisions can have their own laws on the subject. False advertising and health-related ads are regulated the most.

Sweden and Norway prohibit domestic advertising that targets children. Some European countries don’t allow the sponsorship of children’s programmes, no advertisement can be aimed at children under the age of twelve, and there can be no advertisements five minutes before or after a children’s programme is aired.

In the UK the situation is complex as well. Each medium is governed by different regulatory bodies. Thus, Non-Broadcast Advertising is managed by the Advertising Standards Authority, while TV commercials are referred to the Office of Communications. OfCom- is a special governmental super-regulatory body of telecommunications industries which has merged the Radio Authority, Independent Television Commission and the office of Telecommunications.

However, all advertising in the UK is subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice and to the European Advertising Standards Alliance. Thus, CAP is responsible for the constant revising and updating of the British Code of Advertising, Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion - the CAP Code. Its members represent all sectors of the marketing communications industry. The Code policy and monitoring team conducts routine monitoring of advertisements in various media. As advertising of tobacco on television, billboards or at sporting events is banned in the UK, alcohol advertisers are not allowed in their campaigns to discuss the relative benefits of drinking, in most instances therefore choosing to focus around the brand image.

In the Russian Federation, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS Russia) and its regional offices are responsible for enforcement of the advertising legislation. Within the limits of their authority, the anti-monopoly bodies prevent, reveal and terminate violations of the advertising legislation of the Russian Federation by physical or legal persons and initiate and consider cases related to violations of the advertising legislation of the Russian Federation. An advertisement must be bona fide and accurate. Unfair and false advertising is forbidden.

Answer the questions:

1. Why is advertising vital for communication between marketers and customers?

2. What bodies have been established in different countries to regulate advertising?

3. What does advertising regulation refer to?

4. What aspects can advertising regulation rules define?

5. What institution is responsible for advertising regulation in the United States?

6. What advertising is prohibited in Sweden and Norway?

7. How is the advertising regulation control realized in the UK?

8. What type of advertising is banned in the UK?

9. What bodies are responsible for enforcement of the advertising legislation in the Russian Federation?

10. What is the mission of the Federal Anti-monopoly Service in Russia?

Text 3. Mass Media and PR in Government Institutions

The importance of mass media today is immense. Transparency and accountability are impossible in contemporary democracies without media. Media is a vehicle through which government institutions inform, explain and try to win support for their programmes and policies. The relationship between media and government institutions is a complex and increasingly symbiotic process. Thus, if the media portrays something as a crisis, then it is. Moreover, any public servant who openly disagrees with the latest media narrative can be labelled as a rigid bureaucrat who is out of touch with reality. That is why government institutions prefer to stay in strategic partnership with media.

As for PR specialists, they work with media in many ways: prepare press interviews, organise news conferences, conduct media tours and write such materials as fact sheets, press kits, and op-ed articles. Those who work in the sphere of PR establish and maintain friendly relationships with editors, reporters and journalists and provide them with accurate information constantly and consistently. Press reporters are invited to the sessions of local administration to cover such issues as housing problems, care for children and aged people, health care and environment protection.

A typical state PR administration consists of four main departments: press, television and radio, advertising and briefing. Each of these departments has its terms of reference.

Press-department: It is the source of information for national newspapers and magazines, as well as for foreign media. This department organises reporters' visits to the government offices and press-conferences.

TV and radio department: With the growth of TV and radio influence on public opinion, collaboration of PR departments and local TV and radio stations has become really important. Local TV and radio channels usually have some documentary programmes covering and analysing “hot” issues. PR professionals provide the necessary information to these programmes as they form the opinion of people about situations in a region or a country.

The Internet, as relatively new medium of communication, carries an extensive range of information resources and services today. It has enabled entirely new forms of social interaction and activities and achieved new relevance as a political tool, leading us to the Internet censorship. Nowadays many people use the World Wide Web to access news so state bodies and political officials have established official websites to provide information on their activities and policies more quickly and conveniently than via TV or the radio.

Advertising department: Nowadays it is impossible to imagine the activity of government institutions without advertising in media. Advertising departments produce commercials, advertising brochures, posters, flyers, broadsheets and films concerning the activity of the governmental and municipal bodies.

Briefing department: The specialists of this department gather information on the activity of the state bodies and municipal authorities, hand it to the press and advertising departments, and organise briefings for media representatives.

As we can see, the main goal of the PR and advertising professionals is to build effective communication between administration and population via mass media channels fulfilling the following responsibilities:

• Monitoring the media coverage;

• Briefing and advising political officials;

• Managing media relations;

• Informing the public directly;

• Sharing information across the administration;

• Formulating communication strategies and campaigns;

• Researching and assessing public opinion

Answer the questions:

1. What is media in relation to government institutions?

2. How are media and government institutions correlated?

3. Why do government institutions prefer to stay in strategic partnership with media?

4. How do PR specialists coordinate their work with media?

5. What does a typical state PR administration consist of?

6. What are the main responsibilities of the press-department?

7. What is TV and radio department responsible for?

8. What are the duties of the advertising department?

9. How do the specialists of the briefing department work?

10. What is the goal of the PR and advertising professionals?

Text 4. Political Television Advertisements

Nowadays political advertising is everywhere. The amounts of money spent on political advertisements are staggering: hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into what has become the main means of political communication. In the right hands televised political advertising can be a powerful educating tool. The matter is that televised political ads can effectively bring new political ideas to people who have not previously experienced them and convey easily understandable information to the broadest possible audience.

In today's political campaigns such as election, PR and media play a larger role than ever before. The matter is that people in today's society are becoming more and more apathetic about voting and increasingly disinterested in spending time researching the various candidates and their platforms. That is why the electronic media of today is so vital for political candidates as it offers unprecedented opportunities to disseminate positive, accurate information about their platform policies. Unfortunately in today's society, this is the exception, not the rule.

Advertising agencies producing political commercials provide politicians with the opportunity to control the image seen on television fully and completely. Election campaign managers produce materials that journalists can easily use. Turning advertisements into news stories allows the candidates to set the campaign agenda and magnifies the effects of the ads considerably. A significant trend in today's political advertising is the increasing use of negative political advertisements. Sometimes candidates or parties use negative ads just from the beginning of the political campaign. Allegations of dishonesty and incompetence lay the seeds of controversy and scandal. Thus for journalists, it is a no-lose situation when candidates attack one another as the fight itself often becomes the story.

Negative advertising encourages people to vote not for the best candidate based upon the objective and positive information, but for the least evil one. Commercials are astronomically costly and the wealthiest candidate who has managed to sling the most mud at other candidates gets a chance to be elected by "reaching" the voters through these "marketing messages".

Negative campaigning may even keep people away from the polls. It may discourage the supporters of the candidate who is being attacked. At the same time the candidates unintentionally depress the turnout among their own supporters by using negative advertising. Generally, the candidates attack to expand the scope of the political conflict, to drag organised interests and media into the fray. The more intense the conflict is, the more people are drawn to it. The more the candidates attack, the more they make news. Voters, in their turn, are often most receptive to attack such advertisements especially when the candidate who is being attacked responds with a self-promotional campaign rather than with counterattacks. Even the candidates who in principle want to run wholly positive campaigns had to attack to protect themselves from the assaults of the opposition.

Answer the questions:

1. What do politicians use for their campaigns?

2. What are televised political ads used for?

3. What does the electronic media of today offer?

4. What opportunities do advertising agencies provide?

5. Are journalists against the situation when candidates attack one another?

6. What is the outcome of the negative advertising?

7. How can negative campaigning affect people?

8. Why do candidates attack each other during the election campaign?

9. When are voters most receptive to attack advertisements?

10. Is it possible today to run positive campaigns?

Text 5. Advertising and PR in Foreign Affairs

Within the life of the generation now in control of affairs, persuasion has become a self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government. - Walter Lippmann

The foreign policy of any country is the way the state interacts with foreign nations and sets the standards of interaction for its organisations, corporations and individual citizens.

A country's foreign affairs or  foreign relations policy consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations environment. As for the public relations, it is a communicative process and is largely about creating and recreating ideas as well as building relationships with audiences. Advertising, as form of communication is used to encourage or persuade the audience. Effective public relations require knowledge, based on analysis and understanding of all the factors that influence perception of and attitudes toward a country. 

Countries around the world use a variety of hard power and soft power tools to either command or co-opt others into supporting their goals. Hard power tools include coercion and inducement, while soft power methods emphasise agenda-setting and attracting the audience through positive values, culture, media, and overall effectiveness. Public relations and advertising techniques in all their various forms contribute a useful addition to this tool box. One of the prominent figures in modern PR - Edward Bernays, provided the original foundation for all public relations practice in politics. He observed: "The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people".

Political advocacy is also one of the PR methods. Practically, PR specialists try to get the message across any way they can, telling their side of the story as many ways as they can. Historically, there is a clear link between public relations and the political sphere. Governments always played a key role in the development of public relations throughout the 20th century.

Nowadays PR tools play a major role in the foreign policy of any country. Creating the foreign policy is the usual work of the Head of the Government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has several departments applying PR methods. Among them there are such formations as the Department of International Organisations, the Department of Information and Press, the Department of Diplomatic Mail and Messenger Service. As for the Press-office of the Ministry, it provides considerable information support in creation, development and conducting the foreign policy of a country. It also informs domestic and international media about developments in the foreign policy, maintains contacts with foreign journalists and organises briefings and press-conferences for domestic and foreign media.

Political PR-technique is essentially persuasive as it represents an interest, and requires representative democracy where different competing interests can be heard. Political PR methods encourage a rich interaction at different levels between those who are active and interested and those who are passive or even uninterested in political processes and political discourses. PR approach is also used as a defensive strategy designed to hide information. Therefore, most of a political PR specialist's time is spent blocking and reacting to negative coverage, not providing information. Thus, the practice of public relations in politics is often referred to as ‘spin’.

Mass media and communication processes have become significant elements of the foreign policy. Today the fight for attention is very intense and more more sophisticated social media tactics such as Facebook or Twitter are used in the politics of foreign affairs .

In the area of foreign affairs, national media rely overwhelmingly on the prominent government and ex-government officials as the main sources of information.

1. * Walter Lippmann (23 September 1889 – 14 December 1974)- an American writer, journalist and political commentator

Answer the questions:

1. What does the term “foreign policy” means?

2. What hard power tools are used by governments to manipulate the public opinion?

3. What soft power tools can you name?

4. What is the aim of PR and advertisement in foreign affairs?

5. What are the main elements of public relations according to Edward Bernays?

6. What is political advocacy?

7. Who played a key role in the development of public relations throughout the 20th century ?

8. What departments widely apply PR methods?

8. What role does the Press-office of the Foreign Affairs Ministry play?

10. What media tactics are used in the politics of foreign affairs?

1. Text 6. PR in Railway Transport

Public relations are used by railway firms to seek more visibility to their customers. As with advertising, public relations can be segmented to reach particular consumers or markets. For example, a manufacturer of railway cars would target an industry magazine's railway car wrap-up issue rather than concentrating on getting an article in a track publication.

One of the most effective PR methods is press briefing and trade press briefing. For instance, a major railroad supplier in Kansas City takes its top executives to New York each year to meet with industry trade and major businessmedia about the product and service benefits. It allows to maintain a presence - not only with the railroad book, but with business and related trade publications. Plant openings or site visits are perfect for demonstrating how the product is made and what makes it different.

Other tactics include special events and opening launches. To give an example, a major manufacturer of rail cars conducts a special event in Moscow to announce the completion of a major project.

Building a rapport with trade association officials and members helps to receive recognition of the company and its products within the industry. Thus, at a rail forum or roundtable, the comments of the participants don't escape notice in the rail magazines that leads to credibility for them and their companies.

Rebranding is a successful PR-technique used by JSC Russian Railways which has been restructured in response to the rising demand for transport services in Russia. The company has picked a new corporate outfit to match its new outlook and new logo to reflect new aspects of development like tourism, construction, and telecoms. The new brand helps to attract both passengers and investors. The bright red colour represents the company’s aggressive approach and willingness to change. The sign also displays the Cyrillic abbreviation of Russian Railways, pointing to the Russian origin of the company. Russian Railways will pick its corporate colours as well, which will provide the uniforms for 1.3 million staff as well as a new-look for the carriages.

In conclusion, the rail industry is a diverse one with a myriad of different companies working in and around the sector. As such, PR and advertising companies need to have a variety of ways to apply the media coverage they provide.

Answer the questions:

1. What instrument do railways use to seek more visibility to customers?

2. What type of print press will a manufacturer of railway cars choose to take?

3. What example of trade press briefing is given in the text?

4. What actions can be perfect for demonstrating how the product is made and what makes it different?

5. What tactics of PR are mentioned in the text?

6. What helps to build recognition of the company and its products within the industry?

7. What successful PR-technique is used by JSC Russian Railways?

8. Why did Russian Railways pick a new corporate outfit and a new logo?

9. What does the new company brand represent?

10. What type of industry are railways?

Модуль 9. Деловая корреспонденция