2006 Press Releases
Yekaterinburg students of Public Relations learn about government relations with the press in the U.S.
May 26, 2006
The U.S. Consulate General hosted a digital video conference for 20 students and faculty from the Urals State University Public Relations Department with Marguerite Hoxie Sullivan, a specialist in media relations, executive director of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO at the State Department. Ms. Sullivan made a presentation on creative mechanism of communication between the press and the government. She disscused at length the issues of freedom of the press, transparency, ethics and being effective communicators. Ms. Sullivan responded to students numerous questions. How does she deal with the press during a crisis situation? How does she combine a press office's need for a long term communications strategy with its responsibility for working with the press on a daily basis? How responsible can and should government spokespersons and journalists be? How does she uses press pools to manage press coverage? Her comments reflected her own working experience as a media consultant and trainer in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and former Soviet Union countries - as well as in the U.S. Ms. Sullivan emphasized how important the roles of government spokespersons and journalists are in a democratic society - and how they can work together to communicate information about government to the citizenry and respond to their concerns.
