I will save you the hassle of reading a long blog post tonight, so I will make mine short and sweet.
I just wanted to highlight on the conversation one of my colleagues had with a journalist today over the phone about a particular event coming up for one of our clients. She was telling the reporter about the event details and she also mentioned the list of people who were supposed to be there for the event. However, the journalist was hesitant on whether he or she should cover a story on the event. Hence, she told the journalist, “You know I can spin the story around for you?” That sentence just struck me, because from our previous module, Public Relations (Corporate), we did learn from various journals and articles about PR professionals having the title of ‘spin doctors’, and the contradiction of this infamous title, not forgetting the viewpoints of prominent PR teaching professionals.
What do you guys think?
Salut!!
Joyce Chua
14535923
Curtin Singapore
5 comments:
Hi Joyce
Great post! Definitely short and sweet. I truly believe that the 'spin doctor' title has long tarnished the public relations profession. Traditional public relations is merely a creative presentation of the facts and even the use of the word "spin" often implies deceptive and manipulative tactics to sway public opinion. Perhaps the use of the word should be banished in our everyday conversations, as it only confuses us. Perhaps your colleague was trying to say that she could come up with an angle that would better suit the publication?
Have a good one
Nessa
"The use of the word should be banished in our everyday conversations". I couldn't agree with you more on this, the word is very dangerous especially to Journalists. Anyway I believe this colleague was trying to explain that she can creatively transform the story into newsworthy. But talking to Journalists like that is very vulnerable because they are among people who perceive Public Relations as something less than respectable or should I say as clever strategies to convince the public that what's wrong is right. They believe that Public Relations professionals are manipulators of the public mind, rather than conveyors of truth. Therefore using such words as spin could totally tarnish the entire reputation of Public Relations and eliminate the hard earned trust from Journalists.
Hi!
Great topic to reflect on, how PR practioners are exerting so much efforts to move away from the stereotype only to have it re-appear again. Definitely a word we should avoid. I agree with Nessa. Perhaps it was just a slip of tongue on your colleagues part? She should pay more attention to her words though, even if they weren't supposed to mean what they sounded like.
Cheers
Qian Hui
Hello all!
Thanks for the comments guys! Yes I believe my colleague meant that she could come up with an angle that would suit the publication better. She was probably trying to convince the journalist that it was newsworthy so she used the word 'spin'!
Such words do confuse people quite a bit, for example - image and reputation. Some PR teaching professionals condemn the word 'image', while some say they are used interchangeably.
It seems contradicting at times..
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