The Department of
Defense maintains one of the most active public relations and public affairs
programs of any organization. On a constant basis, a military public
affairs/relations professional can be working a communications plan that will
reach many different types of audiences. They may work promoting branding,
reporting to its publics, or handling contingencies on extremely short notice.
The Military and the Department of Defense (DOD) messages are on constantly on public
display. Its opinions are shaped, discussed and subject to mass approval routinely.
How they react to these topics is always
scrutinized by pundits and the average citizen alike. Its messages and brands
can reach to hometown America or influence public opinion around the world. The
information they present can have a huge impact on how the U.S. publics and the
military are viewed as a whole. How the DOD handles its campaigns and programs
to inform the public is crucial to its public and its own successes.
While
each Military branch has its own particular marketing and public affairs
program, the overall goal is the same within the Department of Defense. A
military public relations program relies on its long standing relationship with
the news media. This relationship is crucial in achieving its messaging and
goals. In the book Reporters on the Battlefield, the military public affairs
mission is described, “The military seeks to use news coverage to support its
military mission in three main ways: by supporting positive public relations
and building public support; by building credibility; and by supporting
successful information operations against the enemy.” (Paul, Kim, 2004) As a
primary mission, the role of the military public relations or public affairs professional
is to engage the media and work with them to successfully get the message to
the publics in a transparent and timely fashion.
In
Military public affairs the messaging is not only used in a wartime access, but
an ongoing exchange of information to promote itself as good stewards of
professionalism and service. This is critical in maintaining credibility and
recruitment goals. In recent communications campaigns the military has worked
great strides in achieving a credible stance in the media. This is mostly
achieved from past lessons learned.
“Many military leaders have become aware that
news media coverage of their operations can be a force multiplier.” As with the
recent “shock and awe” campaign accompanying the opening of the war in Iraq,
coverage that demonstrates the performance and professionalism of the U.S.
military to citizens at home also demonstrates those intimidating qualities to
the enemy. (Paul, Kim, 2004)
In the military’s marketing campaigns, in
relation to creating brand recognition, recruiting is the primary goal. The
military had always had been optimistic in its branding, but lacked a long term
goal in promoting its values to the public. By 1998 and 1999 the military had
hit severe recruitment shortages. The results of a DOD study found that if the
military was to stay competitive in recruiting quality recruits it had to
compete for them. The military had to change its advertising strategy. In the Rand
report on what the military advertising dollar can achieve “The four military
Services spent over $600 million on recruiting advertising in 2007. This
represents a 150 percent increase since the 1999 fiscal year (FY)” (Dertouzos, 2009). The result was that the
military had to expand its traditional forms of advertising (print, radio and
TV) into new media concepts. The study pointed out that when the Department of
Defense looked into its targeted audience markets while increasing its
advertising budget, it would see an increase in enlistments from that
advertising. The Army learned that promoting its message and recruitment into
minority demographics and new media there is a positive effect to reach an
expanded audience.
“According
to these estimates, the Army attracted nearly 13,000 additional contracts per
year at the budget levels prevailing during 2002–2003. But, by increasing the
budgets (particularly for magazine and minority cable advertising), the Army
could have attracted 12,000 more enlistments.” (Dertouzos, 2009)
As recruiting stays a focus in the
military’s public relations plan, its messaging is also important when competing
for money to fund programs or increase services. This affects not only the
public that the military needs to inform, but to its military members within
the DOD. Similar to a nonprofit, the military operates off of no income or
profit as a bottom line. In the book, Public Relations Today:
Managing competition and conflict, the authors point out, “Government agencies
also struggle for budget allocations but then must cooperate with respect to
serving the public and sometimes with respect to the political climate.” (Cameron,
Wilcox, Reber, Shin, 2008) If the military can show its value to its publics
and promote itself as a brand that is respected and needed, it can lobby
support. That support is crucial in gaining support from congressional decision
makers. Those decision makers in power will allocate funds via the setting of
the defense budgets.
The
emergence of social media has also transformed how the military engages its
publics. Social media has taken the message or conversation to being picked up
by many more audiences. Through many social media sites a discussion can engage
more opinion makers than traditional media could. These opinion makers can be
formal or informal. Social Media is
changing how organizations view themselves. It is rapidly becoming the gage on
how a message will support the credibility of the organization. Bonin Bough of
the Brand Perspective states this as, “So social media isn’t just changing how
we communicate with other people, it’s changing how we see ourselves in
relation to other people.”(Agresta, Bough, Miletsky. 2010) This is given
organizations a bigger picture on how their public’s view them as a whole. The
military is embracing this by learning to see if its message is having an effect,
and if it is actually reaching the targeted audiences they want to reach via
the feedback that social media provides.
At
one point the Department of Defense was slow to adapt to engaging in social
media. The military soon realized that the blogosphere is very dynamic. Neil Richardson
describes it as “means that commentary about a company or brand might be picked
up and tapped into by a range of people who could be operating in a public
and/or personal capacity. (Richardson, Gosnay, Carroll, 2010) This is rapidly
changing the news and information industry. In the Army social media guide it was
recognized that communicators need to adapt in the shrinking 24 hour news cycle
if they want to be successful.
The U.S. Army social media program soon
allowed for a greater view of transparency on the message whether it was good
or bad. In breaking news the military is usually the first to respond. In that
response, the first comments or information on a disaster or event can come
from a military spokesperson. New media
avenues have the public increasingly turning to social media during an emergent
event to get news. The Army’s current Chief of Public Affairs Steven R. Lanza
stated “Social Media can be a valuable tool for Army organizations. It helps
Army organizations and Army commands establish credibility accessibility and
authenticity.” (U.S. Army 2011) The Army as well as the other branches has started
to maintain a robust social media initiative. Each service is using major
social sites such as, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Flickr and blogs. Fox example
on social media’s massive growth the U.S. Marine Facebook site has over 1,670,
221 followers.
The Military public affairs practitioner
can face many challenging PR crises or events that they must be able to respond
to. The overall goal is to be forth coming in a timely manner while providing
factual information. The message informs, but the same message will also represent
the organization. Historically the press
and the military are on two separate missions. The press’s mission is on gaining
access to report information. The military focus is on mission
accomplishment. Both share a common goal
to serve their publics.
“Both
aspire to a high level of professionalism, and both focus on serving the
public, albeit in very different ways. The military exists to defend and
protect the United States and its territories, while the press exists to keep
the public informed; both roles are considered critical to a healthy democracy.
But while both institutions serve the public interest, there is a tension
between reporters’ need for access to information and the military’s need to
maintain operational security.” (Paul, Kim, 2004)
In 2003 the military launched a new initiative
of embedding journalist within military operations. This new and unprecedented
access grew out of the first Gulf War. During the first Gulf War the press felt
restricted. Tensions between the
Military and the Media became strained. From that dissatisfaction, the DOD
embedded over 600 journalists at the start of the invasion of Iraq. Prior to
embedding being established, the media received its information’s through
orchestrated press conferences and selected subject matter experts. These
selected “Experts” were made available for interviews. There was little to no
first hand observations from journalists that were allowed to accompany the
troops. This coverage created miss-trust or a lack of understanding. In turn represent a partial view or
miss-interpretation of the military’s message. While this was not a crisis in
the sense of being detrimental to reporting to the public as a obligation, the
military needed to also take care of its legal right to have the public
informed factually of the mission.
The start of the embedded journalists during
the invasion of Iraq allowed for a greater access to troop on the ground. This
level of coverage would create new objectives that would influence the message.
This became an important lesson learned.
By giving the media access to leaders and soldiers through embedding it would
provide first-hand accounts on operations. One benefit learned by the military
was that it helped balance negative press from media that was not embedded.
By creating a relationship between the
media and the military, the media was able to grasp a basic understanding of
future operations. This information
learned by the media resulted in more objective coverage and a better
understanding of the mission the military. The military would evaluate the
overall program as a success and report it in after action reports as,
“Media
that became part of the team told first-hand accounts of the 3ID (M) fairly and
accurately. Neither mission accomplishment nor the integrity of the media was
compromised. The media we surveyed spoke highly of their experience and stated
the embed far exceeded their expectations. Soldiers, media, and the American
public were the true beneficiaries. (Military and Reporters Association)
The embedding program provided
new answers to some of the age old questions that surrounded military media
relationships. Before embedding, relationships
were suspect and created a lack of access. This was seen as cover up or a
denial in media coverage. Military public affairs and public relations would
learn that the media is an integral part of any campaign or operation.
The
military, though a government organization, needs to be competitive in the
market place. To stay competitive in the changing media environment, they have
to embrace new media the same way for-profit corporations and non-profits
target their audiences. The stakeholders in a corporation are the private company’s
financial backers. In the role of the military public relations the
stakeholders are the publics it serves. Historically it is noted that the
military learns from its past public affairs and public relations campaigns.
By looking back and studying, as in the Rand
report, the DOD changed how it handled recruitment and branding. That change
helped the military learn to target directly to selected audiences. In comparing its media relationship in past
conflicts, the DOD moved in the right direction by embedding journalists. This
effort has shown to reduce the amount of crisis communications that would have
been engaged in without an embedding program in effect. Social Media has set a
precedent in media relations. Social Media changed the way it reaches the
public’s an organization it serves. The conversation that it affords with the
stakeholders and citizens alike has promoted the service missions.
In the end the Military public affairs
or public relations will handle a wide arrangement of programs and campaigns.
Since the Department of Defense derives its budgets from taxpayer money there
will be great political and public scrutiny. The opinions of the influencers are
important to a long term success. Whether it’s a branding of a service with a
slogan, showing the public they are the first to assist in a humanitarian
crisis, or being transparent in time of war, how the information is delivered
and viewed is crucial to the end user of the military, the public.
Agresta, Stephanie; Bough, B. Bonin; Miletsky, Jason
I. (2010). Perspectives on Social Media
Marketing. [ebrary Reader version ] Retrieved from
Cameron, G. T., Wilcox, D. L., Reber, B. H., &
Shin, J. (2008). Public relations today:
Managing competition and conflict.
Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Dertouzos, James N. (2009) The Cost-Effectiveness of Military Advertising Evidence from 2002
2004. Retrieved from National Defense Research
Institute online
Military Reporters and Editors (2003) Lessons Learned; Third Infantry Division
(Mechanized)
After Action Report.
Retrieved from The Association of Military Journalist online
http://www.militaryreporters.org/lessons_11-19-03.html
Office of the Chief of Public Affairs (2011) U.S. Army Social Media Handbook,Army Social
Media. Retrieved from U.S. Army Slide Share online
http://www.slideshare.net/USArmySocialMedia/army-social-media-handbook-2011
Paul, Christopher; Kim,
James J. (2004) Reporters on the Battlefield
: The Embedded Press
System in Historical Context. [ebrary Reader version ] Retrieved from
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10152582&ppg=50
System in Historical Context. [ebrary Reader version ] Retrieved from
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10152582&ppg=50
Paul, Christopher; Kim, James J. (2004) Reporters on the Battlefield: The Embedded
Press
System in Historical Context. [ebrary Reader
version ] Retrieved from
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10152582&ppg=40
Richardson, Neil; Gosnay, Ruth; Carroll, Angela.(2010)
Social Media Marketing : High Impact
Low-Cost Marketing That Works.
[ebrary Reader version ] Retrieved from
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10438068&ppg=86
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