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Spin Doctoring

Chapter · January 2016

DOI: 10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc035

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Spin Doctoring
CHIARA VALENTINI
Aarhus University, Denmark

Spin doctoring is a derogatory term to define public relations activities for political insti
tutions, political actors, or corporations that emphasize or exaggerate the most positive
aspects of something. The term does not indicate a profession, like public relations,
or a neutral activity, like political communication, but is a biased expression used by
journalists to discredit the work of public relations experts (Esser, 200$). The term is
commonly used to refer to campaigns and communications that are based on decep
tion and manipulation. Governments, political actors, and corporations are using this
technique to protect their image from criticism, to achieve consensus and public sup-
port, and to sell their ideas and opinions. In politics, the concept of spin doctoring is
tied to the process of mediatization, which has made politicians and political institu
tions more concerned for their appearance and how they are represented in mass media
than the political reality.

Meaning

The term “spin” refers to the act of spinning a yarn and is commonly used in ball sports
such as billiards, baseball, and cricket to describe the act ofbowling, pitching, or hitting
so that a ball rotates in the air and changes direction or speed. Like a ball, news can be
pitched to project a specific idea or interpretation of events in the way the pitcher wants.
Therefore, spin is a presentation of information about events, actors, or organizations
in a more favorable manner than it really is.
The word “doctoring” can have two different meanings. It can indicate the act of pro
viding advice and counseling, as medical doctors do to patients, but it can also refer to
the act of changing something in such away as to make it favorable to oneself or even to
falsify contents. The act of doctoring in the popular image has historically been associ
ated with the second meaning: with untrustworthy and deceitful activities. Accordingly,
spin doctoring is a technique of story manipulation and even lies that can tum com
munications into propaganda.
Those individuals that practice spin doctoring are known as “spin doctors.” The word
“doctor” when associated to spin is pejoratively used to indicate those professionals
and experts who employ strategies of self-prornotion. Other negative terms used by
journalists are “manipulators,” “invisible persuaders,” or “sultans of spin” (Jones, 2000;
L’Etang and Pieczka, 2012; Michie, 1998), whereas more neutral terms identifying these
professionals are “political consultants,” “press agents,” “public affairs specialists,” or
simply “public relations officers.”
Ilie International Encyc’lopedia of Political Conununication, First Edition. Edited by Gianpietro Mazzoleni.
19 2015 John Wiley & Sons, mc. Published 2015 by John wiley & Sons, mc.
DOlt 10.1002/97811 18541555.wbiepco35
2 SPIN DOCTORING

Origins and historical developments

Although there is no agreement on their exact origins, “spin doctoring” and “spin doc-
tor” started to appear from the 1980s onwards as popular terms to describe specifically,
but not oniy, certain techniques of political communications in the United States aid
later in the United Kingdom. According to Andrews (2006), the American novelist Saul
Bellow was the first to use the term “spin doctor” in 1977 in one of his lectures discussing
the role of public relations in helping political actors present themselves. Journalists
started to use the term at the beginning of 19$Os when discussing US electoral cam
paigns and activities of image control perpetuated by political public relations experts
(Maltese, 1994). The activity is, however, older than the term.
Larry Tye (199$), in his book on Edward Bernays, defined Bernays as the father of
public relations but also of spin, since he was able to heip tobacco and alcohol compa
nies in the United States to promote their products by making certain behaviors more
socially acceptable in the first part ofmid-2Oth century. In a media-saturated mass soci
ety, Bernays was arnong the first to understand that spin doctoring is an essential feature
of modern politics in order to persuade people of something. Bernays is famous for
using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis techniques to craft content for public persuasion
campaigns. Most of Bernays’s activities dealt with image management and persuasion
and therefore can be considered spin.
By the 1960s political candidates started to use campaigning techniques for image
management and persuasion similar to those used by corporations when promoting
their products and services. The first politicians to use spin techniques are considered
to be the US presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, who particularly needed the heip of
spin doctors to manage their image problems (Sparrow & Turner, 1994). In Britain,
the term became popular among journatists as weil as public relations professionals
working for the government towards the end of 1980s (Ändrews, 2006). The two most
famous British spin doctors are Atastair Campbell, who was Tony Blair’s director of
communications and strategy until 2003, and the publicist Max Clifford.
Especially in the last 30 years, spin doctoring has gained more and more prorni
nence in the daily activities of governments, politicians, and corporations around the
world. for today’s governance in democratic societies public approval is needed, and
this requires a continuing political campaign and favorable media visibility (Sparrow &
Turner, 1994). The development of 24-hour news channels and the increasing competi
tion between news outlets have intensified the race for media visibility among political,
economic, and social actors, and this has contributed to the diffusion of spin doctor
ing, which can be considered a more subtle form of persuasion. In politics, the use of
spin doctoring has become a common activity for governments communicating with
journalists. This, according to Gaber (2000), is problematic, because outside election
calnpaigns, governments are expected to provide factual and impartial information to
citizens and the media and iftheyspin information in their daily commtmication activ
ities they do not comply with this impartialiry principle. furthermore, the use of spin
doctoring technigues for promoting one’s image outside elections can be considered an
improper use of public funds for governrnent and/or party interests (Andrews, 2006;
Gaber, 2000).
 SPIN DOCTORING 3

Role and activities

Spin doctors are professional medla experts who work behind the scene to influence
the media on behaif of their clients. The job of a spin doctor is to put an interpretation
or slant on events or situations by providing a positive angle to a news story. An impor
tant component of spin doctoring is image-making, which is one of the core activities
of public relations and political marketing. Therefore, spin doctors are usually public
relations experts specializing in crafting content and messages on behaif of politicians
and political institutions, but also corporations.
Spin doctoring is part of an image “transformation strategy” to rebrand something or
sorneone. This is a strategy often used by companies to make their products or services
that are not selling weil more appealing. To create a spin, spin doctors use different
framing strategies and priming techniques to create desired images in the minds of
the receivers. In order to make politicians, political institutions, or corporations more
attractive, spin doctors seek to frame their clients in a positive light by exercising some
control over what is said about their clients and how it is saici. For effective spin, spin
doctors need to know how to bargain information with journalists, and to control when
and how much information to release to journalists so as to optimize its value. Hence,
a lot of the job of spin doctors has to do with news management.
The job of the spin doctor is primarily about three main functions: monitoring,
advising, and managing. Spin doctors assist politicians and company personalities in
managing their image, by monitoring public opinion on the politician, government, or
company and advising them in their external communications. Spin doctors prepare
speeches and press material as well as assisting their clients in defining their personal
image to avoid or contain possible critical situations. Spin doctors are often in charge
of staging and controiling events on behalf of pollticians or organizations. To secure
positive medla coverage, spin doctors try to leverage their relationships with key
journalists. This is why an important component of spin doctoring is building and
maintaining influential relations with key journalists.
While there are substantial similarities between tasks performed by spin doctors and
by public relations professionals, the two terms are not interchangeable. Not all pub
lic relations activities are about spinning stones. Sparrow and Turner (1994) argue that
there are substantial differences in practicing public relations and spin doctoring that
stem from their different goals, different approaches to ethics, and use of medla chan
nels, Spin doctoring is considered a reactive activity to protect the image of politicians,
institutions, or organizations from negative events and focuses on producing sound-bite
material in the press room and contacting editors and publishers to sell a favorable story.
The goal of spin doctoring is to get the client’s interpretation of events into the medla
and make the client look good. Public relations, by contrast, is considered a proactive
activity of openly telling the story from the politician or organization’s own perspective
via news releases, speeches, press conferences, and press advertising by providing con
tent that is honest and not deceitfuL The goal of public relations is to develop mutual
interests between the client and his/her/its main publics (Sparrow & Turner, 1994). Yet
the distinction is not always so clear, and examples of non-transparent and deceitful
4 SPIN DOCTORING

public relations activities exist. According to Stauber and Rampton (1995), the US gov
ernment and military apparatus has on several occasions used public relations firms to
fabricate messages in order to raise the public approval of wars.
This critique reflects the early development of public relations practices mostly based
on persuasion and hype. This, together with the periodic misuse of public relations
strategies and tactics in the political sphere, has historically raised a number of criti
cisms on the damaging impact of public relations in democracies. Media sociologists
in particular argue that public relations is all about spinning and influencing public
opinion and perceptions about politicians, governments, or organizations by convey
ing specific positive meanings and thus deliberately distorting the reality (L’Etang and
Pieczka, 2012). While not everything that public relations professionals do is spin doc
toring, concerns for the increased use of this techniqtie and the development of more
and more sophisticated methods of persuasion call for a broader discussion on the
power of communication in society and the role that ethics should play in reducing
abuses.

SEE ALSO: Advertising, Political; Consultant, Political; Framing Theory; Image, Polit
ical; Manipulation; Marketing, Political; Persuasion, Political; Propaganda

References

Andrews, L. (2006). Spin: from tactic to tabloid. Journal of Public Affairs, 6(1): 31—45.
Esser, F. (2008). Spin doctor. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), Vie international encyclopedia of comnitmi
cation. Oxford, liK: Blackwell.
Gaber, 1. (2000). Government by spin: An analysis of the process. Media, Culture and Society,
22(4): 507—518.
Jones, N. (2000). Suttans ofspin: The medla and the new Labour government. London, UK: Orion.
L’Etang, J., & Pieczka, M. (2012). Public relations: Criticat debates and contemporary practice.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Maltese, J. A. (1994). Spin control: The White House Office of Communications and the manage
ment ofpresidentiat news (2nd ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Michie, D. (1998). Vie invisibtepersuaders — How Britain’s spin doctors inanipulate the media.
London, UK: Bantam Press.
Sparrow, R., & Turner, J. W, Jr. (1994). The spin doctor: An alternative model of public relations.
Public Relations Review 20(1): 19—27.
Stauber, J., & Ranipton, 5. (1995). Lies, damn lies and the public relations industry. Monroe, ME:
Common Courage Press.
Tye, L. (1998). The father of spin: Edward L. Bernays and the birth of PR. New York, NY: Henry
Holt.

Further reading

Davis, A. (2002). Public relations dentocracy: Public relations, politics and the mass media in
Britain. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Kurtz, Fl. (1998). Spin cycte: How the White 1-buse and the medla maniputate the news. New York,
NY: Touchstone.
 SPIN DOCTORING 5

Richardson,?. (2005). Be)’our own spin doctor: A practical guide to using the nzedia, London, UK:
Politico’s Publishing.

Chiara Valentini is associate professor of public relations and corporate communica

tion at Aarhus University, Denmark. She was secretary and then vice-chair of the Public
Relations Division at the International Communication Association (ICA) and is cur
rently chair of the same division. Dr. Valentini is the author of numerous peer-reviewed
publications and books in strategic public relations, social media, crisis communication,
public and political communication, and the European Union. She serves as a reviewer
of several international peer-review journals and is member of the editorial board of
Corporate Communication: An International Journal and the Journal of Public Relations
Research.
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