With the looming presidential election in the US, there is a new trend emerging at the political front. Some scholars believe that since the second half of the 20th century, images, issues and media reporting have never become crucial in the Western political processes as they are today. Domestic politics in the West have been transformed into a war of public relations (PR) among different political parties or factions within the societies; while election is now a battle of skills and influence in the exercise of PR and whoever wins such battle will gain political power.
For one, scholars who are critical towards PR politics in the West believe that such rising trend virtually threatens the continuity of democratic politics in this part of the world. Not only the long-standing values of democracy face the risk of diminution, elections have also been reduced into emotional and low-efficient politicking by those who are willing to trade national issues with popularist agendas. Thus, the extent of the disappointments expressed by the Western academic circles on the rise of PR politics are more than describable.
What is PR Politics?
As of current, there are many scholars who separate PR politics with that of political PR. The former is of the view that political PR exists and it is a sub-discipline of PR ⸺ one that is similar to corporate PR, organizational PR and individual PR. They all take PR as the main discipline and it enjoys the same conceptualization as the other three sub-disciplines. Nevertheless, such convenient categorization bears caution as the methods used in the PR exercises are starkly different from those used in the corporate, organizational and individual realms.
The latter’s group of scholars, on the other hand, subsumes PR politics under the political science discipline in which it involves political marketing by aspiring parties to gain or maintain their political power. Such exercise includes the utilization of three instruments of PR politics, namely, images, issues and media reporting. From Anbound’s perspective, PR politics will be much more reflective of the actual social operations on the ground than its conceptual rival, political PR.
Generally speaking, the three instruments of images, issues and media reporting have the effect of maximizing the political performances among populist politicians. In the case in which the political administration lacks governance, coordinated, well-planned and effectively executed PR politics can mitigate or restrain adverse impacts from such governing performances. From influencing public sentiments to preventing them from getting out of control and becoming political crises, excellent PR politics will be able to produce these results deemed advantageous to the populist politicians or even, mediating for them when they encountered political challenges.
The Case of the US
As evidently shown by the Trump administration as well as the coming presidential election between the Democrats and the Republicans, the separation of political and administrative decision-making has increasingly locked the politicians to endless PR-motivated public visits and media interviews. As a result, the level of media exposure and public opinion polls have increasingly become the main axis of a politician’s life. What this means to the general public is that they have little chance to get close to politicians and unable to participate in public decision-making processes that affect their daily lives. Over time, what the public has received is mere politics created on the media platform that may not necessarily reflect the real situations on the ground. No doubt, such distortion reinforces the unwillingness or inability of the masses to understand the real situations and thus, become a powerful base for PR politics for the populist politicians.
Once this kind of public relations politics penetrate the internet and mobile phone users, it will produce two different impacts. Firstly, politics becomes an imaginary exercise in which the public is and willing to be the audience. Instead of tackling public issues with difficult but effective solutions, politicians are willing to stage their PR ‘shows’ through electoral promises that may be difficult to execute. Secondly, politics is increasingly interacting and leaning towards public sentiment and social consensus. Such development, in turn, entrenches politicians into populist agendas so much so that it is increasingly difficult for any politician to reverse the course.
The Hong Kong’s Lesson for the West
Once touted to be the representatives of the masses, the rising PR politics has put into question the future of the political elites at large. Italian scholar, Vilfredo Pareto once remarked: “Historically, except for occasional interruptions, ethnic groups have always been dominated by the elite... Elite refers to the most powerful, vigorous and capable person, regardless of whether he is good or bad.” Likewise, American scholar, Joseph Schumpeter also believes that voters in political life are usually weak and incompetent, vulnerable to external interference and unable to make independent decisions, so they can be exploited by political parties, interest groups, and politicians. That said, the rising trend of PR politics has obviously affected the social status of the political elites. Instead of leading and guiding the public towards the betterment of the nation, they have lost such lustre and worst still, being led and guided by the PR politics themselves.
The recent Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protest is the excellent case that is worthy for the Western countries to take lesson from. In the internet era today, a society needs more than conventional politics that are practised by political elites. With the extradition law issue coming to fore, those who are part of the Hong Kong’s elites and therefore, also made up the elite interests, are torn between supporting and protesting the bill amendment. Moreover, the whole issue also exacerbated the lingering division between the political elites and public masses that have been ongoing for the past several years. With both of these fragmentation factors playing their roles, long-standing vested interests are cracked while at the same time, societal division has reached the boiling point. But more importantly, it was the public chat groups (in social media platforms like Telegram) that helped to mobilize protestors for the unexpected mass protest against the extradition law last month. In all, the advanced internet society in the former British colony has significantly challenged the long-standing credibility and primacy of its political elites.
Facing such unprecedented crisis staged by the internet-savvy Hong Kongers, it is a matter of time for the administrative region’s politicians to abandon the conventional elite politics and adopt PR politics that may resonate better to the wider populace. Also, it is expected that the HKSAR government may even collaborate with the Chinese central government to stage large-scale and targeted PR campaigns to counter the discourses of the protest movement in the coming months or so. With both developments slated to occur in the short- to medium-term, it is foreseeable that we will witness the coming of PR politics between both the pro-establishment and anti-establishment camps in Hong Kong. This will be the Hong Kong’s lesson for the Western political elites.
