We’ve already gotten used to some news from a spokesman for Putin (or the Investigative Committee), and we don’t even think about the essence of this profession. What kind of education do you need to get to become a press secretary, what responsibilities does a person have to fulfill in this position? We will tell you in detail about the profession and its famous representatives.
Profession: Press Secretary
In the most general sense, a spokesperson is a person who represents the company or an official in the media. For Russia, this is a very young profession, it appeared only in the 90s of the XX century, when the country switched to a market model of the economy. In Western countries, the profession has existed since the 40s of the last century, when marketing communications and the media system began to take shape. The representative of this profession combines journalistic and advertising principles and is an intermediary between the public, the media and the company represented. He manages the image and information field of the organization in which he works. Representatives in the media are needed for every company that is working on creating its image, as well as for people in public professions: show business stars, politicians, and top managers.
Spokesperson Functions
In many companies, managers have difficulty understanding what a spokesperson should do. A variety of duties and functions are being put on his shoulders: from solving marketing problems to organizing events. A spokesperson is a person who performs a variety of functions related to the formation of the image of a company or person. Moreover, all functions can be combined into three large groups:
- a conductor of the line of conduct and the socially significant position of the company or individual;
- mediation in the interaction of journalists, the public and the company, the spokesperson, providing certain information, creates a communication field around the company, controls its perception by target groups;
- protection and correction of negative ideas and stereotypes about the company, leveling of negative events and erroneous actions of the head.
Responsibilities
As part of his functions, the spokesperson has to fulfill very different responsibilities. Each company can, depending on its specifics, assign to the employee a different amount of job tasks. Since the spokesperson is a person who is engaged in establishing contacts with the media, the first large group of his duties lies in this plane. He must provide materials for journalistic publications, write press releases about events in the company, prepare and read interviews, and respond to requests from newspapers and television channels.
This specialist monitors publications about the company, submits reports to his boss about the current image in the press. Also on his shoulders are the functions of organizing the speeches of the head, preparing press conferences, interviews. Often in small companies, this specialist fills the site with news and maintains accounts on social networks. He is also responsible for the image of the company and its leader, prepares articles that form a positive image of the organization, holds image conferences. The spokesperson organizes the leader’s participation in significant events, prepares the texts of his speeches, and helps answer questions. Usually he also has to do photography and participate in the preparation of promotional materials.
Spokesperson Qualities
Since the spokesperson is a profession that requires constant contacts with a large number of people, the main quality is communication skills. He must also be able to write and speak well. Oratory is the most important requirement for people in this specialty. The traditional set of qualities required by a good press secretary also includes responsibility, initiative, punctuality. He must be an attentive and restrained person, because to some extent they judge the whole organization. And, of course, such a specialist should be professionally trained and well educated.
Where do you learn to be a spokesperson?
A spokesperson is a profession that requires a variety of skills, and therefore people with several types of education can successfully take part in it. Firstly, this is a special education in the direction of “Advertising and Public Relations”. Some universities in their programs focus on training PR-specialists and produce high-quality press secretaries. Secondly, a lot of journalists are involved in the profession. Since the spokesperson's responsibilities include a large amount of work with texts, it is not surprising that it is the representatives of the writing fraternity who become successful on this path.
For the same reason, philologists who can write texts of any orientation often come into the profession. As often happens in advertising, people with the most diverse basic education come to press secretaries. So, there are many specialists in international relations, lawyers and economists.
Well-known spokespersons
Specialists in media relations are in all public organizations and many famous people. We are already used to the fact that the news is transmitted with reference to the statements of the press secretaries, and their faces are constantly appearing on television. The most famous specialist in this area, of course, is the press secretary of the President of Russia. Besides him, the general public is well known for the representative of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow, Irina Volk, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, and the media representative of Rosneft, Mikhail Leontyev.
Already this list allows you to see how different functions and powers people in this profession can be endowed with: from a simple statement of the company's position to an independent media figure with its own ideas and sphere of authority.
Country Representative: Responsibilities
Most often we hear the statements of the representative of the President, who is one of the main newsmakers in the country. A spokesman for the President of the Russian Federation has a large number of responsibilities. It was he who was vested with the right to voice the position of the country's leader on various issues. Also, of course, the employee is preparing press conferences and speeches by the President. We can see that the spokesperson accompanies the head of state at all official events, helping him, if necessary, answer questions. He is responsible for keeping the President up to date with everything that happens in the world and in the country.
A spokesperson prepares special selections of publications from the media, makes digests of the most important thing. Of course, he himself cannot write all the press releases; under his supervision a whole service works. But no news can be seen until it is approved by a spokeswoman. He has great responsibility for the image of the head of state, and he is responsible for every word that the President speaks publicly. This specialist prepares texts for the speeches of the head of the country, while they should be absolutely organic for the speaker.
Press secretaries of the President of the Russian Federation: career and personality
Over the 25-year history of this profession in Russia, we have seen several professionals alongside the country's leaders. Not all of them were well remembered by the public, but some were very bright independent figures. So, the former press secretary of Boris Yeltsin, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, spoke very brightly in the media and, at the end of his career in the Kremlin, did not leave journalism. It is also worth recalling Natalia Timakova, Presidential Aide Dmitry Medvedev, who, after serving in this capacity, became a successful official in the President’s office.
Less well-known, but no less significant were the media relations specialists under the country's leader: Andrei Grachev, Alexei Gromov, Dmitry Yakushkin, Sergey Medvedev. Each of them, after finishing work with the head of state, made a good career in various fields: from business to journalism and diplomacy.
