The minister and chief of cabinet for the president of Guinea was at Temple University Feb. 10 to learn more about managing government and presidential communications from two faculty members in the Department of Strategic Communication at the School of Communications and Theater.

(L-R): Associate Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC; Guinea Minister and Chief of Cabinet Naby Bangoura; and Professor Deborah Cai, STRC. (photo by Ethan Schwartz)

It was part of a two-week visit to the United States as part of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership program. Naby Bangoura is traveling the East Coast, visiting universities such as the University of Maryland, Harvard University and Temple.

For two hours, Bangoura, accompanied by a translator from the State Department, met with Professors Gregg Feistman and Deborah Cai. They discussed strategies for managing government communications to a diverse population that has been ruled in recent history by military regimes.

As the theoretical basis for the rest of the discussion, Cai talked about how to build four dimensions of trust and Feistman discussed media agenda setting. Topics ranged from how President Alpha Condé can build trust with people across the nation to how to manage messages across different types of media—some of which are not available to all areas of the country. They also discussed how to manage communication within the government, which has a large number of ministers, and how to encourage pursuing vision rather than reacting to immediate problems.