OPINION - Hybrid communications is the future of better government public relations

By Leonard Wanyama

Let us be honest, part of the reason the government is struggling with its messaging is that various ministries, departments, agencies, or counties have been deceived by lots of journalists who’ve paraded themselves as strategic communications experts but are not.

This has been a shortcut rebranding for many journos out of media jobs transitioning into corridors of power to help politicos package themselves, their ideas, or their messages better.

As academic institutions, media platforms, public relations, and demographic needs have expanded, demands on government branding, outreach, social media presence, or even integrity of internal communications have also dramatically increased in unpredictable ways.

Granted the first point of call would always be journalists because they come from a highly trusted sector, and they would be most familiar with these changes considering their adaptive capabilities in media practice.

However, street smarts and news savviness are not enough in dealing with the highly asymmetric and unpredictable nature of an increasingly digital space, that is suffocating reason over emotiveness.

Consequently, relying on one or two highly visible journalists as gurus for whom their communications career success should automatically rub off onto the positive public relations of a ministry, department, agency, or county is a mistake that keeps repeating itself manifestly by the sacking of high-profile journalists who’ve transitioned into the government sphere.

Public communications need a convergence of teams that -first- offer specialization of interactions, namely the communication experiences in media, community, stakeholder, digital platforms, campaigns, and crisis management or relations.

This is already happening, but it needs the second pillar, which is trust in the technocrats who bring up the boring subject matter expertise, evidence-based perspectives, analytical focus on specific issues, rigour of methodological practice, and linkage to procedural avenues that need to be communicated at every stage in the digital age.

Subsequently, updating government public relations and strategic communications in a three-pillar framework involving a proactive principal, a competent media practitioner within a team in relation to the specific task, plus a well-honed bureaucrat will help quell the current deluge of misinformation and disinformation.

This will establish requisite coordination between officialdom with proper channels concerning newsroom engagements, group outreach, digital tools, information promotion, and crisis responses in so far as how detailed briefing on processes counters the ‘malinformation’ ecosystem.

Understanding this will mean that hybrid communications can combine traditional and alternative exchange of information into a better form of multimodal channels plus use of technologies to facilitate better civic interactions.

Other than current practice this will mean that such a proactive integration needs to properly plan cohesive frameworks with proper outcomes for face-to-face interaction, personalised phone calls, emails, video conferencing, instant messaging, and social media that is aimed at targeted constituents.

More importantly, this may be the beginning of removing the sense of threat that security agencies are increasingly communicating about the risks associated with fake news. Hybrid communications can become a credible pathway to address the fears of anarchic spillover where digitally coordinated protests cross over to unconstitutionally accelerated insurgency.

By acknowledging that the state is a creature whose origins emerge out of collective survival plus the associated means for self-preservation and can therefore feel very uneasy by unpredictable phenomena, hybrid communication will move the country towards the better angels regarding new practices emerging out of pluralist constitutional democracy.

Kenya should always perceive the internet and its associated benefits as a blessing despite the fear of “false narratives, fabricated claims, plus cyclical distortions that corrode the truth and distort public debate towards the erosion of democratic institutions” as expressed by President William Ruto at the second Mashariki Cooperation Conference - a regional gathering of security intelligence chieftains.

Digital media contestations on social platforms should not only be viewed from the lenses of threats such as hate speech, radicalization, or any other insecurity dynamic simply because officialdom arguments or government postures on any subject are below the par and not up to the task speed of the outpouring public opinion.

Hybrid communications would therefore be able to counter these menaces through consistent efficiency, accessibility, and effectiveness of message transmission as opposed to securitization of people’s character as exemplified by either their good or bad content if they’re still within the confines of the law.

With proper planning over the course of six months to a year, the three-pillar teamwork of a hybrid system will help adjust to scenarios by proper utility of coexisting communication platforms that is context specific and more responsive to high expectations of a majorly younger demographic audience born in the age of the new constitution.

The author is the Regional Coordinator of the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) and the Chief Executive of the International Relations Society of Kenya (IRSK). Follow @lennwanyama.