PUBLIC RELATIONS OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Public relations (PR) in the public administration sector in Ukraine is of particular importance in times of war. Given the extraordinary challenges faced by the state, public communications play a critical role in maintaining public trust in the government, mobilizing resources, coordinating actions, and maintaining morale. At the same time, there are serious problems in the public administration sector today in terms of the information and dialogic context, which create a barrier of distrust of the Ukrainian people in their government. These include corruption in funding and content distribution, low information culture, insufficient digital literacy of the population, bureaucracy and lack of flexibility in communications, poor integration of modern PR technologies, lack of professional staff in the field of state PR, weakness in the face of hacker attacks in the information war with Russia, and others. To eliminate them, it is necessary to have the most permissible and frank dialogue, first of all, between the government and society, in which the state, as a carrier of government policy and an executor of public affairs, is obliged to demonstrate the truthful nature of its publicity. Today, it is extremely important to improve the information and communication mechanisms of the process of informing the public through the development of technical capabilities and the introduction of the latest management tools of public administration adapted to the challenges and requirements of today in order to popularize, advertise and disseminate government decisions. The article reveals the essential aspects of public relations as a tool for ensuring not only a high-quality information and communication policy of the state, but also its security function, which concerns crisis communications, disinformation, cyberattacks, hacking of media resources and other methods of hybrid warfare. Among the practical PR measures used in the state policy on the information front are the following: communication strategy during the war of 2022-2023, information counteraction to disinformation during the war (StopFake and Diia platforms), digital services, mobilization of international support and diplomatic appeals, moral support and mobilization of the population, and others.