Information And Persuasion: The Development And Operations Of The White House Communications Offices

This thesis explored the theoretical foundation, historical development, responsibilities and public relations practices of the White House communications institutions (the Press Office and the Office of Communications). Theories of political communications and public relations were used to examine the importance of opinion control to the U.S. President and his administration, which explained the necessity of White House communications operations. The author summarized the development of White House communications apparatus into three stages, i.e. emergence of the Press Office, co-existence of the Press Office and the Office of Communications and fast growth of the Office of Communications in the 24-hour news cycle; and four responsibilities and functions of the offices, i.e. information distribution, agenda setting, publicity coordination and president advocacy. In the studies of the abovementioned areas, it has been found that plenty of PR approaches have been adopted in the White House communications operations. The author concluded that although the professional PR practice employed by the government is often called into question, it is a required instrument for the President to achieve effective communications and conducive to a democratic and open political life. An evenly two-way communications model between the government and the public is ideal but not easy to be realized.