A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others.

Duties and function

In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have received formal training in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of report Image:Hurt Report cover page.png, 220px, Example of a front page of a report A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. ...

communications Communication (from Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the power of the Roman Rep ...

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization An organization, or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British E ...

and public affairs in this role in order to ensure that public announcements are made in the most appropriate fashion and through the most appropriate channels to maximize the impact of favorable messages, and to minimize the impact of unfavorable messages. Celebrity spokespeople such as popular local and national sports stars (such as

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American former professional basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a ...

Bob Uecker Robert George Uecker ( ; born January 26, 1934) is an American former Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. , a total of 30 ...

) or television and film stars (such as

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the most populous city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitu ...

Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American retired actor, author, film producer, and activist. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he first rose to prominence for portraying Alex P. Kea ...

) are often chosen as spokespeople for commercial advertising. As of August 2017,

Kayleigh McEnany Kayleigh McEnany (; born April 18, 1988) is an American conservative political commentator and author who served as the 33rd White House press secretary for the Trump administration The presidency of Donald Trump began at noon Eastern ...

and Michael Tyler served as spokespeople of the RNC and DNC, respectively.

Responsibilities

Unlike an individual giving a personal

testimonial In promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, se ...

, it is the job of a spokesperson to faithfully represent and advocate for the organization's positions, even when these conflict with their own opinion. As a result, spokespeople are generally selected from experienced, long-time employees or other people who are known to support the organization's goals.

Identity

A corporation may be represented in public by its

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer, or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company A company, abbreviated as c ...

chairperson The chairperson (also chair, chairman, or chairwoman) is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons that is subordinate to a deliberative assembly. Usually ...

, or

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) A president is a leader of an organization, company, community, club, trade union, university or other group. The relationship between a president and a Chief Executive Officer, chi ...

chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is the officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority In the fields of sociology Sociology is the study of society, human social behaviour, patterns of social relationships, social intera ...

counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in law, legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word counsel can also mean advice given ...

, or external legal advisor. In addition, on a day-to-day level and for more routine announcements, the job may be delegated to the corporate communications or investor relations departments (or equivalents), who will act as spokespeople. As an example, in the particle physics community, large collaborations of physicists elect one (or two) spokespeople or leader(s) of the collaboration. The spokesperson in such cases is the lead scientist of the collaboration, not a public speaker. Each collaboration chooses the roles and responsibilities of the spokesperson for internal purposes, but typically spokespeople also have defined roles for liaising with the host laboratory and/or funding agencies.

References

{{Authority control Political occupations Business occupations

Duties and function

Responsibilities

Identity

See also

References