Why Spin is the Enemy of Truthful Communication
From Managing Outcomes
Below, another excellent essay from our good friend in Australia, Tony Jacques…
In a world disoriented by misinformation and disinformation, old fashioned spin still lurks to contaminate public relations and communication.
Unlike misinformation – unknowingly sharing statements that are false – and disinformation – deliberately creating statements intended to mislead – spin is different, yet no less dangerous.
Spin is most often defined by how it is not the same as Public Relations. Of course, they use common tools and techniques, and both are about persuasion, but their intent and purpose are fundamentally different.
PR generally aims to inform, relies on truth, and reinforces trust and reputation to build mutually beneficial long-term relationships.
By contrast, spin relies on half-truths and manipulation to deceive the public and achieve short term false perceptions. It’s concerned more with outcomes than honesty and is totally lacking in sincerity.
The British agency advisor Ben Hollom has called spin “like the mischievous twin sibling of PR”, while American PR doyen Robert Dilenschneider goes further to say: “Spin doctoring is to public relations what pornography is to art”. Or as one editor of a major magazine has said: ‘Spin doctors take shortcuts with the truth. To them, the end justifies the means”.
Meantime, there is the more modern concept of Fake News, which was defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke”.
However, while fake news began as a meaningful term, all nuance has been obliterated in typical fashion by Donald Trump, who uses it to attack anything he doesn’t like or doesn’t agree with.
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