The public relations practices of the government of Alberta have elicited substantial controversy, particularly under the administration of Premier Klein. However existing analyses have been insufficiently comparative. This dissertation is a within-case comparison of the evolution of government public relations practices under the three Progressive Conservative administrations of Premiers Lougheed, Getty and Klein. The theoretical framework rejects democratic justifications for government public relations, but accepts an “administrative imperative” that recognizes the use of government public relations techniques to accomplish particular policy goals. At the same time, it recognizes that these practices are often linked to important transformations in the broader political economy. A model of incentives and opportunities of why politicians use public relations strategies to accomplish their goals is introduced to examine the particular evolution in the Alberta case. Premier Lougheed’s administration created a new public relations agency dedicated to improving the administrative efficiency of the government’s public relations function. It was marked by restrained forms of government advertising and a documented commitment to a distinct space for government public relations, insulated from the political demands of the elected level of government. Periodic television appearances by the premier appear to be the most aggressive forms of public relations activities. Premier Getty adopted this model, despite a substantially transformed political environment and despite documented advice to change his government’s practices. Premier Klein recognized this transformed political landscape and substantially reformed government public relations, increasing public opinion research, adopting manipulative and aggressive news management tactics, politicizing and centralizing the public relations staff and integrating the entire range of public relations techniques into regular politically contentious advertising campaigns. These reforms help to explain some of Premier Klein’s political and policy successes. The dissertation concludes with some of the deleterious consequences of extensive public relations practices by governments in Canada and some recommendations as to how to mitigate against those consequences. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-06 11:35:00.169

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the authorities Swedish Migration Board and Swedish Transport Administration communicate with the users on the social media Facebook and Twitter. This essay is based on a qualitative content analysis of a total of six different posts on Facebook and Twitter, which the authorities of the Swedish Migration Board and the Swedish Transport Administration have done. The result is that Twitter's comments threads were perceived as more general and not personally angled. On Facebook, the commentaries contained very personal questions concerning the person who wrote the question. The most common language acts of both authorities are mainly information. They occur to the greatest extent, and mostly in all posts and responses. The nature of the information is usually informative but sometimes also explanatory. Other language actions that appear a part are calls. The most common call is when the text ends with a link reference. The text wants the reader to press the attached link, thus performing an action. The ways of creating relationship and the extent to which the texts try to create relationships with the recipients differ between the two different social media. On Facebook, it is clearer that the texts are trying to create relationships. Twitter does not match the same pattern.

El proceso de formación de un gobierno –que, según algunos de los conceptos que se manejan sobre cohesión social, permitiría avanzar por la senda del progreso de la sociedad– carece de procesos articuladores que permitan su funcionamiento eficiente en la práctica. En ese sentido, se hace necesaria la creación de mecanismos que permitan el ejercicio comunicacional entre la población y sus instituciones públicas, de modo que la ejecución de proyectos se acerque al objetivo último que debería ser el bien común. Este trabajo propone un modelo que busca la efectividad comunicacional entre ciudadanía y organismos públicos, sobre la base de una conceptualización de la cohesión y articulación social desde una mirada comunicacional, considerando los aspectos, procesos y presunciones con los que actualmente actúan algunas instituciones públicas peruanas. Se plantea el concepto de desfragmentación organizacional, el cual contribuye a entender las brechas que alejan a la sociedad de la cohesión / The process of forming a government -which, according to some of the concepts that are handled on social cohesion, would advance along the path of progress of society- lacks articulators processes to function efficiently in practice. In that sense, is necessary the creation of mechanisms enabling the communication exercise between the population and public institutions, so that project implementation to the ultimate objective should be the common good approach. This paper proposes a model that seeks the communicational effectiveness between citizens and public institutions, based on a conceptualization of cohesion and social articulation from a communicational glance, considering the aspects, processes and assumptions with currently operating some Peruvian public institutions. The concept of organizational defragmentation arises, which helps to understand the gaps that keep society cohesion.

Imagine a world where someone’s personal information is constantly compromised, where federal government entities AKA Big Brother always knows what anyone is Googling, who an individual is texting, and their emoticons on Twitter. Government entities have been doing this for years; they never cared if they were breaking the law or their moral compass of human dignity. Every day the Federal government blatantly siphons data with programs from the original ECHELON to the new series like PRISM and Xkeyscore so they can keep their tabs on issues that are none of their business; namely, the personal lives of millions. Our allies are taking note; some are learning our bad habits, from Government Communications Headquarters’ (GCHQ) mass shadowing sharing plan to America’s Russian inspiration, SORM. Some countries are following the United States’ poster child pose of a Brave New World like order of global events. Others like Germany are showing their resolve in their disdain for the rise of tyranny. Soon, these new found surveillance troubles will test the resolve of the American Constitution and its nation’s strong love and tradition of liberty. Courts are currently at work to resolve how current concepts of liberty and privacy apply to the current conditions facing the privacy of society. It remains to be determined how liberty will be affected as well; liberty for the United States of America, for the European Union, the Russian Federation and for the people of the World in regards to the extent of privacy in today’s blurred privacy expectations.