Public Relations Firms Spin Information

Public relations agencies exist to build or to improve relationships between organizations and individuals (such as political candidates) and the groups to which they are appealing. Public relations firms are used to convey information in the most favorable light, to shore up sales of a product by making it seem to be the most desirable (or enhancing) choice, to sway political opinions, to raise money for charitable activities, or to rehabilitate the image of an entity or individual in the wake of some kind of scandal or unfavorable incident.

The work of public relations firms is not just to generate publicity but to control publicity. Public relations is the science of the “spin.” The professionals in public relations agencies are highly skilled at identifying target audiences and tailoring content to be received by them with maximum favorability.

Given the rise of instant access media in our culture, where television cameras seem to appear out of nowhere to chronicle every aspect of activity, the necessity for the services of public relations firms has grown exponentially. The damage that can be caused by a “sound bite” on the evening news to the election chances of a candidate can be devastating unless the candidate is prepared to respond with well-crafted sound bites of his own.

As their services have been in increasingly greater demand, public relations firms have exhibited a tendency toward specialization. Some exist only to diffuse immediate crises, others to apply concentrated work to the perceived reputation of a given public figure. There are public relations firms that specialize in the presentation of material on a single issue. Other firms help corporations to build good relations with their investors or with their workers.

It is true that public relations work has in the past and most likely will in the future be perceived as propaganda, especially when the “spin” involved is designed to “doctor” unethical business practices, the production of substandard products, price gouging, or damage to the environment. There is a fine line between managing information the public receives and designing a “cover up.”

Staples of the public relations industry include hosted press conferences where a representative speaks with the media at an appointed time and place, the point being to control the interaction with the reporters and to have prepared material and prepared answers for the questions the newsmen are most likely to ask.

A second industry staple is the press release, a written statement sent to the media through a variety of channels, for instance over one of the newswires, or in more recent times via broadcast email. All too often, especially in the hands of a lazy reporter, the wording of a press release may find its way into a newspaper or on to a broadcast pretty much as it was written, thus giving the public relations people enormous influence in how information reaches the American public.

While an invaluable tool for controlling the amount of and type of information that reaches the public in regard to any given entity or individual, it should be remembered that public relations firms exist to create “spin.” What is written in the press release, while perhaps not a bald-faced lie, is rarely the whole truth.

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