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28 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

personnel in the classic professions of law and medicine, we would argue that those
who work within the field of political communication – as consultants, press
spokespeople, advisers, etc. – are operating with a much looser interpretation of what it
means to be in that ‘profession’ and to be a ‘professional’. They lack, for example, those
elements that characterise the classic professions,such as:

control over entry; a self-regulating code of conduct; definable bodies of knowledge,
supported by a systematic body of theory; training and certification by recognizable
standards that individuals are qualified in that body of knowledge; full-time
employment of professionals in the field; and formal organisation of professionals
into societies which defend professional standards and protect members interests
(Scammell,1997,p.5; see also MacDonald,1995; Friedson,2001).

As yet, the list of specialists that deal with election campaigns and public relation
activities cannot be characterised as a profession or professions – Scammell (1997, p. 7)
sees those specialists as part of a process of ‘commercialisation’ instead – so there may
be sound reasons then why it is best to deal with these specialists as if they belonged
to a range of specialist occupations that operate with a fairly loose interpretation of
what it means to be ‘professional’ in the conduct of their activities. At some future date
these specialists might seek to change their status as they develop their knowledge
base,training,ethical responsibilities and the like, but it is worth noting that such claims
are often themselves contested. As Wilensky has pointed out, a profession ‘must find a
technical basis for (its claim), assert an exclusive jurisdiction, link both skill and
jurisdiction to standards of training, and convince the public that [its] services are
uniquely trustworthy’(1964,p.138).Something that,at this stage,cannot be asserted.

The Professionalisation of Political Communication
The history of the professionalisation of communication activities
The other reason for seeing the process of professionalisation as a cumulative one
whereby knowledge and skills are acquired over long periods of time is that one can
trace the origin of such specialisms to the early part of the twentieth century. Stanley
Kelley provides a good account of the early years of political persuasion in the US in his
1956 volume and he details how they became increasingly involved at all levels of
politics, regionally and nationally. More interestingly, Kelley draws attention to the ways
in which the specialisms developed and their competences:

If… the basic trend noted was that toward an increased demand for propaganda
services, we may analyze … two accompanying tendencies: first, that towards a
broadened conception,on the part of the propagandist,of his aims and methods;and,
second, one toward consideration of propaganda as a technical activity providing a
basis for occupational specialization (1966,p.26;See also Mayhew,1997,ch.8).

Whilst the history of the propagandist and public relations person could be identified
in the US in 1920s and 1930s, their presence in other countries is of more recent origin.
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