Public affairs generally refers to the engagement efforts between organizations, often times in the context of building business or governmental relationships.
Having such a broad range of coverage regarding its definition, public affairs is, by nature, a hybrid of disciplines that relies heavily on strategic communication.
Dr. Juan-Carlos Molleda writes, “Many types of organizations virtually and physically interact and communicate with publics and/or audiences outside of their own country of origin to build a dynamic set of relationships.
Trade, direct foreign investment, political coalitions, worthy global causes, information flow, and social networking, among other phenomena, are increasing the complexity of those relationships dramatically”.
[4] There is a long-standing history of colonialist attempts to circulate messages of conformity and perpetuating that organized government of the Global South is inferior.
Some notable countries that partake in lobbying activities include Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa,[9] Chile, and Peru.
[10] Within these nations although lobbying is an active movement as a participatory gesture in the public affairs industry, there is still much development and accessibility increases happening in order for the Global South to progress in their efforts.
[13] It has been argued that professional lobbying goes against democracy as it allows big business to buy power and influence with well funded campaigns giving them an unfair advantage.
[14] Within the Global North, public affairs entails not only the former, but additionally information monitoring, media management, event planning and organization, political marketing, and of course, networking.
There are large numbers of professionals providing public affairs services while working under different job titles across a wide variety of sectors.
North America is currently holding the largest segment of that value, and is expected to maintain its standing, followed by Europe, with an increased investment in digital programmatic public relations efforts overall.
[17] In the United States, President Barack Obama has introduced several measures intended to increase transparency in public affairs.
In an attempt to close the "revolving door" of executive-branch officials becoming lobbyists immediately following the expiration of their federal appointments, he issued Executive Order 13490 on January 21, 2009,[18] dictating, among other things, a two-year ban on lobbying for former top executive branch officials related to any issue that they worked on during their final year in government employment.