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The job title of a person who is a spin doctor will often be "press
associate", "media advisor", "public relations officer", "public information
officer" or something similar. Spin doctors are most frequently used in the
world of politics, but in the widest sense of the word, anyone trying to
manipulate the media in one way or another can be said to be a spin
doctor.
The most famous type of spin work is probably burying news. The term
was relatively unfamiliar to the public until Jo Moore suggested burying
news under the events of September 11, 2001.
The act of burying news is quite sneaky; Governments have to tell the
people about what they are doing. The problem is that the government
might not want to tell the people, despite their obligation to do so. When
something big happens, the media will automatically home in on the big
news, trying to get the big stories. So when big news breaks, the spin
doctors time their press releases to coincide with a different event. That
way, they have fulfilled their obligatory information, but because nobody
notices, they haven't jeopardised the governments position.
Exploiting events
Big things happen outside of the world of politics – but because everything
is politics, the politicians can turn pretty much any event to their
advantage. If a bomb threat is called in to an airport, for example, a
politician might release a press release about how great the security is on
the airport, and how undramatic all of this is. Another politician might
release a press release about how scandalous the event is, and how it
illustrates how bad security at the airport is. While none of these two have
actually lied, the two press briefs are based on the same facts, and are
examples of spin; more often than not, press releases will be based on
part of the facts – just the parts that are beneficial to the cause in
question, of course. Other events that are frequently exploited are rape
cases, abduction cases, football hooliganism cases, traffic statistics, etc.
Drawing attention
http://everything2.com/title/spin+doctor[07.10.2010 22:39:49]
spin doctor@Everything2.com
This is in close relation with the two previous methods of spin. Drawing
attention to one thing might at the same time remove the attention from
something else, often through exploiting a particular event or
announcement.
The last way of manipulating the media is the so-called stick and carrot
approach. What happens is that a journalist contacts a PR officer. The
officer gives the journalist some info, and sees what happens. If the
journalist uses the information to write positively about the cause /
government / political party, the journalist will get more information the
next time. This way, a journalist can build up a close relationship to a
certain PR office, and will get all the exclusive news...
... until the stick approach is applied; If the journalist gets critical or asks
questions s/he shouldn't have, the carrot is revoked, and the journalists
will suddenly find themselves out in the cold, without any information.
This is, of course, the irony behind all democracies; The people in power
have the power to bring out information. However, the people in power
have two agendas when giving information: Their primary agenda will
often be trying to stay in power, and the secondary agenda will be trying
to keep the country running. If the division is made like this (and it is
indeed, in many cases), it becomes obvious that the information that goes
out to the population of a country suffers in the wake of the power-hunger
of the politicians.
All in all, I think it is safe to say that spin doctors should – in an ideal
world – not have a place in a democratic society.
See also
Spin
Jo Moore (who suggested burying news on September 11 2001)
Tricks of the Propagandist
Domination techniques
Propaganda
http://everything2.com/title/spin+doctor[07.10.2010 22:39:49]