Agenda setters: PR or Media?

Spin - Good, Bad?

In a pluralist society, a market place of voices, one voice tries hard to be louder than the other and seek attention, each voice has it's own agenda, so what the agenda of PR and the media, and who spins the most.

Public relations has long been associated with spin, propaganda and persuasion. Arguably, this may be true, the principles of spin have altered in today's time. Call it lazy journalism or 24X7 global news requirements, 54% of the news is PR material.

Spun and Spinnig

So who owns the news-Journalists or PR professionals? A look at the Number 10 news on BBC gives a uncovers a new angle to spin. In this broadcast, Alastair Campbell, press secretary to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his relationship with Westminster's lobby journalists provide give an insider view to the world of politics, PR, spin and media. The telecast shows a how Campbell, categorically drip-feeds information to journalists that is favourable and often shunning those are of controversial in nature. He chooses his journalists, looks out for the "good" angle in stories and publicises them. On the other hand the media is seen to ask Campbell to provide packaged information and also agreeing to publication of certain information.

After giving this broadcast a thought, the questions that arise are - Who does a layman or a concerned citizen believe? Is news still ethical and reliable? For all the code of ethics, the reasons to be transparent, the debate in the PR industry about control and the trust in politics,  this broadcast answers the questions and to a wide extent.

With the power of social media, can spin still survive or is surviving? Will the media take their share of agreement of spin, or will PR spin their accusation on spinning on the media?