Question

What role does a public affairs officer play when dealing with both an elected official and the citizens who elected that person? Why is this role necessary? How does it differ from the traditional role of the public relations practitioner?

Answer 1

The public affairs is a branch of formal office of United states department of defense who's purpose is to deal with media and community issues. The major role of public affair officer is to maintain a good and robust relation between reporters and media representatives. PAO(public affair officer) is keep in contact with government agencies , keeps internal and external public information which can affect them. PAO is responsible for preparing relative information for military operations, world affairs , business through news release.

The Public affairs officer play the role of information provider through maintaining relationship between reporters and the government agencies. his (PAO) role between citizen and elected official is like a role of information bridge or gateway of information. he is the one who keeps close eye's on internal and external public information and keeps contract with government agencies. by these activities he coordinates between government officials and media and reporters in order to provide information to citizens regarding there issues and actions which government is taking to resolve these issues and problems of public utilities.

The role of PAO is very important and necessary for both citizen and elected officials. without PAO, it becomes very difficult for media and reporters to deal with government agencies in order to know information which is important for citizens and it would affect government agencies as well, it would become difficult for government agencies to inform citizens regarding issues which affect them. so PAO is main bridge between government agencies and citizen, when it comes to information.          

the traditional role of public relationship practitioner is different than the role of public affair officer. the role of public relationship officer is to maintain good reputation of his clients. they works as a PR agents for their clients. whereas a public affairs officer works as bridge between government officials and citizen in order to provide information regarding community issues and mass utility issues.