Other people’s thoughts, they ain’t your hand-me-downs.
— Spin Doctors (Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong).
Spin doctors. No, I am not talking about the 90’s band that encouraged you to just buy them the flowers if you wanted. A spin doctor in the realm of Public Relations are defined as a someone who is “responsible for ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spin%20doctor).
While The Practice of Public Relations (2020) states that the term spin originated during the Clinton administration, a New York Times article by William Safire (1986) shares the phrase was first found in an 1984 editorial about the Reagen-Mondale televised debates. The Washington Post picked the term up and defined spin doctors as ‘the advisers who talk to reporters and try to put their own spin, or analysis, on the story.’ This expression stuck and came to be used to describe intentionally skewing a message with slants and half-truths to sway the audience a certain direction.
Most commonly, and as in the case of its origination, we see spinning used in politics. This is often done to hide the truth, to make the truth not seem as bad, or to exaggerate positive claims. However, this method is no longer reserved for only politics. Often we see celebrities, athletes, and even businesses leaning on deception as a way to protect or repair an image.
Even Edward Bernays, regarded as the Father of Public Relations, has been referred to as the Father of Spin – particularly because he helped alcohol and tobacco companies market their products as socially acceptable (Valentini, 2016).
What separates the spin doctor from the public relations professional? While there are undoubtedly many similarities between the two professionals, public relations is founded in truth and honesty. In fact, the entirety of a person’s reputation and influence in the world of PR depends on their transparency and straightforwardness.
Chiara Valentini (2016), Associate Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communication at Aarhus University in Denmark, points out three specific differences: goals, approaches to ethics, and the use of media channels. The goal of public relations is a mutual relationship and interest between two parties. On the other hand, the goal of spin doctoring is to tell one side of a story to improve the image or appeal of that party – even at the expense of ethics or honesty.
Learning to recognize the difference between the two, especially as someone on the receiving end, is not always an easy task. Knowing what spin doctoring is can be a helpful first step. Is the language being using confusing or misleading? Is it very emotional or critical (think of tweets we often see from the POTUS)? Is the information referenced or are you able to find conflicting data from trusted sources?
Ultimately the lines between public relations and spin doctoring will always be gray. Edward Bernays himself said “If I tell you to pick out a certain tie and you think that’s bad advice, you’ll call it manipulation. But if I use reason, persuasion, authority and tradition to show you why it’s a good idea to wear that tie, you’ll thank me for showing you facts you weren’t aware of. And you might just put on that tie.”
References
Farhi, P. (1991, November 23). The Original Spin Doctor. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/11/23/the-original-spin-doctor/109f782a-5964-4d99-94f7-b4b666bc1f74/?noredirect=on
Safire, W. (1986, August 31). On Language; Calling Dr. Spin. Retrieved from The New York Times Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/31/magazine/on-language-calling-dr-spin.html?Src=longreads
Seitel, F. (2020). The Practice of Public Relations. Boston: Pearson.
Valentini, C. (2016). Spin Doctoring. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312540156_Spin_Doctoring
The PR Outlook 