Image is Everything: An Assessment of Texas House Press Secretaries

While a significant amount of research has been conducted on understanding the many facets of the media, far fewer studies have been conducted on those public relations practitioners who supply information to them: the press secretary. This study explores and seeks to understand issues related to professionalism of Texas House press secretaries and compare those findings with findings of the study conducted by Edward J. Downes (1998)^1 of United States congressional press secretaries. Five indexes of understanding and four models of public relations were derived from Downes’ study of the modern literature, and developed into nine working hypotheses that comprised the research framework. This study analyzes the results of a survey that queried Texas House press secretaries on their attitudes and opinions regarding the hypotheses. The data suggests that Texas House press secretaries (a) became members of the dominant coalition within the office, but not with regard to designing campaign strategy (b) have a relationship with the media that is based on mutual respect (c) spin messages, but do not like the negative connotation associated with that concept, and spin messages to a lesser degree than congressional press secretaries, and (d) mostly practice a press-agentry form of public relations. These findings were similar to the findings of Downes’ study of congressional press secretaries with the exception of hypotheses; five and eight. The conclusions suggest that more extensive research is needed to adequately assess whether Texas House press secretaries could be considered public relations professionals. ^1 Edward J. Downes conducted a research study in 1998 entitled, “Hacks, Flacks, and Spin Doctors Meet the Media: An Examination of the Congressional Press Secretary as a (Potential) Public Relations Professional. He is currently an Associate Professor for the College of Communication at Boston University.

Name thesis:degree_name

Masters in Public Administration

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Public Administration

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Doss, Lauren E.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tajalli, Hassan

• Texas House of Representatives
• secretaries

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/24148

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/24148