Description
The origins and history of the United States Coast Guard public affairs program remain generally unknown in both the military and civilian public relations communities. This gap in the historical record contributes to the misunderstanding of what the Coast Guard public affairs program is and what it should provide for the service. Moreover, the combination of military and law enforcement missions complicates how the service implements its public affairs program. This research used qualitative methods to analyze past public affairs policy and organization to discover and construct the history of the Coast Guard public affairs program. Service public affairs objectives in conjunction with the responsibilities of public affairs personnel provided the overall purpose of public affairs at any given time in the programs history. This study categorized the results using Grunig and Hunt’s four models of public relations to show the evolution of the Coast Guard’s external communication practices. The four models include press agentry/publicity, public information, two-way asymmetrical, and two-way symmetrical. Each model represents a progression in public relations practices and a movement toward an ideal process of creating mutually beneficial relationships. Academic literature presumed the military services primarily use the public information model for their public affairs programs. This study identified evidence of two-way symmetric public relations practices and ideas as early as the 1940s. Additionally, this study identified the influences and factors that shaped the Coast Guard’s public affairs program.
