Though the technology associated with communicating has changed drastically in the last two decades, the basic principles of good communication have not changed, the former deputy chief of staff of the Ronald Reagan administration told an association of public relations professionals in the Church.

Michael Deaver, the architect of President Reagan's successful 1980 and 1984 U.S. presidential campaigns, was the keynote speaker at a Nov. 9 banquet of the International Conference of the Latter-day Saints Public Relations Society. Today, he is the international vice chairman for Edelman Worldwide, the public relations firm that has done work for the Church.

Mr. Deaver contrasted the communications technology that existed in 1985, when he first went to the White House, with what is available today. He noted that today there are personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, expansion in the number of broadcast networks and other news sources.

"Journalism has changed during that period of time," he said. The Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal caused American journalists to view leaders with greater skepticism, he explained. "Most of the stories I read are not interested in the substance of what's going on, but in the personalities of what's going on; in what [one university professor] has called the 'schema' of things; in other words, who is doing what to whom."

Yet there are certain basics in communications that have not changed. "Most of these I learned from my pal Ronald Reagan," he added.

First, "you have to know who you are for you to communicate," he said, adding that to do a successful job for a client, he must first get the client to establish his own identity.

Second, he said, one must keep one's communications goals limited. "If you get into trying to . . . send out dozens of messages, nothing gets through."

The third principle he gave was "to speak only when you have something to say. . . . We all know people who have spoken before they have thought."

Finally, he said, it is important to have a sense of humor.

Prior to Mr. Deaver's remarks, Max Meng, international president of the society, presented him with the society's Joseph and Hyrum Smith Communicator of the Year Award. "I can't tell you how much it means to me to be recognized by the Church and by all of you," Mr. Deaver said in response. "It means more to me than I can say."

The society is an international non-profit organization of members of the Church who have professional careers in public relations and marketing or who are volunteers called by the Church to serve as public affairs directors or public affairs missionaries. It is sponsored by the Public Affairs Department of the Church. Information in joining the society is on the web site, www.ldsprs.com.

E-mail: rscott@desnews.com