In
public relationsPublic relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment...
,
spin is form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics.
Politicians are often accused by their opponents of claiming to be honest and seek the truth while using
spin tactics to manipulate public opinion.
Because of the frequent association between "spin" and press conferences (especially
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
press conferences), the room in which these take place is sometimes described as a
spin room.
In
public relationsPublic relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment...
,
spin is form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics.
Politicians are often accused by their opponents of claiming to be honest and seek the truth while using
spin tactics to manipulate public opinion.
Because of the frequent association between "spin" and press conferences (especially
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
press conferences), the room in which these take place is sometimes described as a
spin room. A group of people who develop spin may be referred to as "
spin doctors" who engage in "spin doctoring" for the person or group that hired them.
Overview
The techniques of spin include:
- Selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position (cherry picking
Cherry picking is the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position....
)
- Non-denial denial
Non-denial denial is a phrase that became popular in the wake of the Watergate scandal, referring to an equivocal denial, particularly one made by an official to the press...
- Phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths
Begging the question is a logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise. Begging the question is related to circular argument, circulus in probando or circular reasoning but they are considered absolutely different by Aristotle...
- Euphemism
A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or in the case of Doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker...
s to disguise or promote one's agenda
- "Burying bad news": announcing one popular thing at the same time as several unpopular things, hoping that the media will focus on the popular one.
Edward BernaysEdward Louis Bernays was an American pioneer in the field of public relations along with Ivy Lee. Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public...
has been called the "Father of Spin". In his book he describes some situations in twentieth-century America where tobacco and alcohol companies used techniques to make certain behaviors more socially acceptable. Bernays was proud of his work as a propagandist.
Another spin technique involves the delay in the release of bad news so it can be hidden in the "shadow" of more important or favorable news or events. A famous reference to this practice occurred when UK government press officer
Jo MooreJo Moore served as a British special adviser and press officer . She was embroiled in scandal while working as advisor to Stephen Byers, the Transport, Local Government and Regions Secretary....
used the phrase
It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury in an email sent on
September 11The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
, 2001, following the
attacks on the World Trade CenterThe September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
. When this email was reported in the press it caused widespread outrage for which Moore was forced to apologize. She was later made to resign when it was claimed she had sent a similar email following the death of
Princess MargaretThe Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II....
.
In the United States public affairs dealing with military contacts during the beginning of the War in Iraq used a spin tactic. Several parts of U.S. military wanted to hire PR firms to send out fabricated or misleading information to get a rise in the public approval of the war. Some officials did not want to join information officers with public affairs officers for the fear of undermining the military's credibility. This form of spin uses the tactic of blowing small circumstances out of proportion to get a certain reaction from the public.
Skilled practitioners of spin are sometimes called "spin doctors", though probably not to their faces unless it is said facetiously. It is the PR equivalent of calling a writer a "
hackHack writer is a colloquial and usually pejorative term used to refer to a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In a fiction-writing context, the term is used to describe writers who are paid to churn out sensational,...
." Perhaps the most well-known person in the UK often described as a "spin doctor" is
Alastair CampbellAlastair John Campbell served as Director of Communications and Strategy for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2003...
, who was involved with
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's public relations between 1994 and 2003, and also played a controversial role as press relations officer to the
British and Irish LionsThe British and Irish Lions, formerly known as the British Isles and the British Lions, is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
rugby unionRugby union is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, 100 m...
side during their
2005 tour of New ZealandIn 2005 the British and Irish Lions rugby union team toured New Zealand for the first time since 1993, suffering a 3–0 whitewash at the hands of the New Zealand All Blacks...
.
The Americans talk and radio show-host
Bill O'ReillyWilliam James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator...
calls his show the
No Spin ZoneThe O'Reilly Factor is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political and social issues with guests. The show premiered in 1996, along with the Fox News Channel...
to make believe the audiences that he dislikes the phenomenon.
State-run
mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
in many countries also engage in spin by only allowing news stories that are favorable to the government while censoring anything that could be considered critical.
See also
- Apologetics
Apologetics is the whole of the consensus of the views of those who defend a position in an argument of long standing. The term comes from the Greek word apologia , meaning a speaking in defense....
- Astroturfing
Astroturfing is an English-language euphemism referring to political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that are formally planned by an organization, but designed to mask its origins to create the impression of being spontaneous, popular "grassroots" behavior...
- Code word (figure of speech)
A code word is a word or a phrase designed to convey a predetermined meaning to certain listeners while sounding inoffensive to other listeners not aware of its true meaning.-Professional:...
- Corporate propaganda
Corporate propaganda are propagandist claims made by a corporation , nearly always for the purpose of manipulating market opinion to the benefit of their product or to divide public opinion with regard to controversial issues related to that corporation, and its associated business dealings....
- Doublespeak
Doublespeak is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms or deliberate ambiguity....
- Framing (social sciences)
A frame in social theory consists of a schema of interpretation—that is, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes—that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events. In simpler terms, a person has, through his lifetime, built a series of mental emotional filters. They use these filters...
- Information subsidy
In public relations and journalism, information subsidy is what information sources provide the news media by issuing press releases, purchasing advertising, or sending letters to the editor; this relieves the journalists from some burden of collecting information, and shortens the time to...
- Managing the news
Managing the news refers to acts which are intended to influence the presentation of information within the news media. The expression managing the news is often used in a negative sense....
- Marketing speak
Marketing speak refers to particular patterns of language often used to promote a product or service to a wide audience by seeking to create the impression that the vendors of the service possess a high level of sophistication, skill, and technical knowledge...
- Media manipulation
Media manipulation is an aspect of public relations in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding...
- Propaganda
Propaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
- Psychological manipulation
According to Simon, successful psychological manipulation primarily involves concealing aggressive intentions and behaviors and knowing the psychological vulnerabilities of your opponent to determine what tactics are likely to be the most effective...
- Sexed up
Sexed up refers to making something more sexually appealing. Since 2003 it has been used in the sense of making something more attractive than it really is by selective presentation; a modern update to the phrase "hyped up". Variants include "sex it up"...
- Sound bite
- Spin room
A spin room is an area in which debate participants, their representatives, and/or other interested parties attempt to "spin" or influence the perception of a preceding debate, usually among assembled reporters.- External links :* Christian Science Monitor:...
- SpinSpotter
SpinSpotter was an online service, developed by Seattle-based SpinSpotter Inc., designed to surface specific instances of bias and inaccuracy in any news story online. The service focused mainly on these major news outlets: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times and Yahoo! News...
- Weasel word
Weasel words is an informal term for words and phrases that, whilst communicating a vague or ambiguous claim, create an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said. Weasel words manage to vaguely imply meaning far beyond the claim actually made...
Fictional Spin Doctors
- Nick Naylor - Protagonist of Christopher Buckley
Christopher Taylor Buckley is an American political satirist and the author of novels including God Is My Broker, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat a First Lady, Wet Work, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday, Supreme Courtship, and, most recently, Losing Mum...
's bestseller Thank You for Smoking.
- Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty in the American sitcom Spin City
Spin City is an American sitcom television series that ran from 1996 to 2002 on ABC. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York...
.
- Malcolm Tucker - enforcer from Number 10 in the BBC comedy The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series, which satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed six half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
and the film In the LoopIn the Loop is a feature film directed by Armando Iannucci. It is a spinoff from the BBC TV series The Thick of It satirising Anglo-American politics in the 21st century. The film was released on 17 April 2009 in the United Kingdom....
.
- Conrad Brean - hired to save a presidential election in Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman about a Washington spin doctor who, mere days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer to construct a fake war with Albania...
.
- Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe in the BBC comedy Absolute Power.
- In the game Toontown Online
Disney's Toontown Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by The Walt Disney Company and billed as the first such game intended for kids and families. Designed for children as young as seven, the depth of the game's content has drawn in many older players as well...
, one of the Lawbot Cogs has been named a Spin Doctor.
External links