Ethos Public Relations Manchester

Is PR all 'spin'?

by Shaun

As part of my part-time course in public relations - www.cipr.co.uk - I had to choose and write an essay of my own choice, and I choose one examining PR 'spin'.

Since having quite a big career change last year and moving into public relations, it's been met with mixed reactions from friends and family - usually who don't understand what it is that I do and occasionally claim it's all fluffy stories and 'spin'.

So the burning question, did I find that PR is all 'spin'? Well no but, as expected, it is quite a complex issue. PR has a chequered history. For instance, Edward Bernays - considered to be the Father of PR - was a nephew of Sigmund Freud and studied social sciences. He believed that we should 'control the masses' through PR.

And then we are awash with examples of wartime propaganda distributed by the Government, again where truth wasn't always essential. The recent example of spinmeister Alistair Campbell and his production of documents on why Britain should go to war with Iraq has again done very little for the reputation of public relations. So it seems that labels of 'spin' are understandable.

But PR has evolved and is evolving. Just analysing examples of PR campaigns today show that not all PRs can be tarnished with the same brush. Campaigns now are well planned and often involve two-way communication, so reliant on the feedback of the public. PR isn't just a case of 'pumping out' information.

Some PR campaigns involve an element of persuasion - as within many other professions like sales and advertising - but the full arguments were spelt out and evidence was based on fact.

Yes, even today there are bad examples of PR practitioners who do use 'spin' - and unfortunately when this happens it often turns up in print because of our close relationships with journalists. This just wouldn't happen in other professions.

But there's a lot to a PR function other than media relations (i.e. speaking to journalists and issuing press releases). We also do community relations, internal communications, marketing, production of publications, website development and writing blogs like this one!

So no, PR isn't all 'spin' and I have a 2500 word essay on it if any one disagrees!

Posted at 10:29am on 1^st August 2008