PR must die: spin, anti‐spin and political public relations in the UK, 1997–2004 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Living With Spin: Political and Media Relations in Mediated Public Life
Southern Review: Communication, Politics & …, 2003
The recent resignation of Alastair Campbell and the reorganisation of governmental communications at 10 Downing Street have highlighted the political influence of 'spin doctors' and other professional communicators involved in media management. This article delineates the identity and functions of a spin doctor. It evaluates the political influence of spin doctors, acknowledging their significance in contemporary political communication but also arguing that their powers are tempered when considered in the longer-term contexts of political process. Spin doctors are nonetheless posited as necessary figures in modern politics, given the mediated basis of public life.
2014
This thesis examines the under-explored career transition between two roles at the centre of political communicationthe journalist and the parliamentary media adviser. They are two roles commonly portrayed as antithetical to each other, locked in a power struggle over the control of information. This oppositional framing is most easily recognised in the ubiquitous binary stereotypes of the 'watchdog' journalist scrutinising government, seeking truth and informing in the public interest; and the manipulative 'spin-doctor' engaged in advocacy, Since the arrival of the "press agent" in the 1920s the number of public relations professionals has risen rapidly. By the 1980s and 1990s, Mayhew (1997) said the trend toward employing public relations practitioners "exploded" with political consultants, media specialists, public opinion pollsters, professional grassroots organizers, specialised lobbyists, focus group organisers and demographic researchers assuming increasingly influential roles (p. 4). Deacon & Golding (1991; 1994) argued governments became wise to the advantages of being able to use tax payer funds to promote its policies, which lead to the emergence of what has been coined the
TEN SHADES OF TRUTH: A study of Australian Journalists’ shift to Political PR
The use of manipulative overt and covert ‘spin’ tactics by parliamentary media advisers to embellish, obfuscate and evade has been well documented. However, there has been less attention paid to the way journalists adapt to ‘spin’ culture and interpret truth once they become parliamentary media advisers. Based on inductive analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with twenty-one Australian journalists who made the transition to parliamentary media advising, this paper offers a typology of ten subtle approaches to truth telling adopted by these journalists in their new role as political media advisers. The interview data revealed a range of pragmatic approaches including: ‘triage’, ‘putting the best foot forward’, ‘never tell a lie’, ‘playing a dead bat’, and ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’. Through the comparative insights of journalists who have worked as parliamentary media advisers, the practitioner reflections in this paper complicate the blunt conception of the mendacious ‘spin-doctor’ and point to the malleability of ‘truth’ in both communications roles.
RE-ASSESSING THE “PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW” The shift from journalism to political PR
The path between journalism and parliamentary media advising is well trodden. However, there has been little examination of the impact becoming a media adviser has on a reporter’s conception of journalism values and practice. This paper reports on a selection of findings from broader inductive qualitative research into the under-explored career transition from journalism to parliamentary media advising and back. Semi-structured interviews with 21 journalists who had moved between the two roles revealed the shift to political public relations (PR) led several of the journalists to reassess their commitment to the fundamental journalism principle of the “public’s right to know”. Once working as parliamentary media advisers, the transcripts showed a growing sense of caution around the release information by the former journalists, in response to the confidential nature of politics, and being on the receiving end of unethical journalism practice. Central to this change was an erosion of trust in particular reporters due to perceptions of unethical practice. Based on these findings this paper argues it is important for both journalists and political media advisers to reflect on the way in which their own actions might be perceived by the other, and consider whether their practices are helping to facilitate or restrict the free flow of information to the public.
In journalism, public relations and political communications scholarship journalism and parliamentary media advising have been defined in opposition to each other. This is most notably observed in the ubiquitous stereotypes of the journalist as democratic ‘watchdog’ and the parliamentary media adviser1 as Machiavellian ‘spin doctor’. Both of these stereotypes carry ethical assumptions about each of the two roles. On the one hand is the journalist whose professional identity is tied to its role in democracy serving the ideals of truth, fairness, scrutiny and informing in the public interest. On the other hand is the ‘spin doctor’ whose use of morally dubious tactics of lying, manipulation, control, persuasion and advocacy in the interest of a client are seen to be undermining democracy. Based on the reflections of twenty-one reporters who have worked as both journalists and parliamentary media advisers this paper argues that these oversimplified antithetical stereotypes do not adequately reflect the more complex reality of either role. This paper is part of broader doctoral research which draws on the traditions of phenomenology to examine the under-explored phenomenon of journalists who make the transition from reporter to parliamentary media adviser and back again. Using grounded theory strategies this qualitative research project examines a range of issues related to the career transition including power relations between the two roles and conceptions of ethical conflict. Instead of the black and white oppositional portrayal of the two roles the study found the interviewees perceived many similarities between journalism and parliamentary media advising, including shared skills and goals. Based on their individual lived experience of the two roles some of the study participants perceived the goals of ‘informing’ and ‘advocacy’ to be shared by both journalism and media advising and not confined to either role. In response to these findings, this paper argues it is time to address the inadequacy of such oversimplified oppositional stereotypes and adopt a more nuanced understanding of the two roles based on the varied perceptions of individual practitioner experience.
This book takes a fresh look at the well-documented and contentious relationship between journalism and public relations. While some of the content and arguments have appeared in earlier journal publications {Macnamara, 2012 #314;Macnamara, 2014 #777}, this text also contains new material, including the author's personal reflections on moving back and forth between journalism and public relations.
Journal of Sociology, 2015
This article explores the uses and consequences of political communication in Australia. It considers the different types of government ‘spin doctors’ and explores the dimensions of the ‘Australian public relations state’. The article then examines the relationship between the media, political communication and democracy. It subsequently develops a typology of overt and covert practices that suggests that there should be an analytical and ethical distinction between ‘spin’ and ‘political communication’. The article concludes that media advisers are ‘key activists’ within the public sphere and that good political communication gives people the capacity for informed citizenship. Ultimately this discussion demonstrates that political communication has both democratic and anti-democratic aspects, and it offers a conceptual framework for exploring communicative practices and their consequences.