According to Wikipedia Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and it publics.
However the practice of public relations has often been associated or looked at as spinning, as a matter of fact the father of PR Edward Barneys has been referred to as "the father of spin." When people think about PR and spin it always comes down to PR being all about a certain agenda and promoting that particular agenda at all costs even if it means spinning it a little or a lot. The world spinning insinuates making the information work in your favor.
People like Alastair Campbell former press secretary to British Prime Minister Tony Blair has done nothing but "add fuel to the fire" about PR being nothing but spin. Campbell was referred to as a spin doctor and created more controversy during his time as chief press officer. In a video "News No. 10" we watched in class we saw Campbell doing what he did best being a powerful press officer and kept control of the news going in and out of his administration.
I think more than spin Campbell did a great job at controlling what the media knew and what media outlets knew what. Even though he was not liked by many and accused by many of being manipulative any good PR person for any organization will like to have and keep control because by keeping control of what comes in and out you are always on top of everything. However Campbell maybe took that a little far because there is a fine line between control and SPIN!
Here is a Video of Campbell on Newsnight
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