Soon many university students will be graduating in marketing and communications. Some will aspire to work in the marketing department of a business organisation or as journalists. Others will want to be more ambitious and eventually become spin doctors for a political party or even a large international business.
We live in a time of professionalisation of practically permanent political campaigns. Politicians orchestrate media campaigns and employ spin doctors to control the narrative about themselves and their policies. In the television and social media age, viewers perceive politics and political parties based more on visual images than expressed statements. Emotions rather than reason form perceptions.
The political journalist Michelle Grattan argues that “spin is a highly professional selling of political messages which includes the maximum use and manipulation of the media”. It is a form of intentional relations between press offices and established journalists on mutually accepted rules and a proactive public relations approach.
Spin doctors are experts in communication. They use techniques and skills to place a specific message in public in a way that will cause the desired feelings and reactions to a politician or a political party. Despite the pervasiveness of spin in all democracies, spin doctors suffer from a poor image and are quite unpopular among journalists who accuse them of manipulating information.
I am not sure whether university courses in marketing and communications give enough importance to the techniques that spin doctors need to master to be successful. Some sociologists argue that people perceive spin as an attempt to bypass the truth, which reduces confidence in the political parties. This is one reason why turnout in elections keeps declining in many democracies.
Politicians have regained considerable control over how they project themselves to the electorate in the social media era. They no longer need the traditional media to get their message across, as anyone with a minimum grasp of ICT skills can communicate with a large audience at a very reasonable cost.
Since there will never be a return to a time without a spin in politics, it is essential to understand the techniques politicians and their spin doctors use to curry favour with the electorate.
Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 US election was rigged is one strategic lie many Americans still believe true
Caroline Fisher is a former Australian journalist and spin doctor. In a recent conference, she spoke about how journalists and the public can spot spin in political communication. Like other communication researchers, Fisher argues that “strategic lying” – an intentional lie designed to go viral on social media – is often used by spin doctors.
She adds: “Strategic lying spreads through social media. The mainstream media amplify it, and it keeps it alive. It is very hard to scrutinise, very hard to debunk. Fact-checking isn’t very effective, so it just keeps spreading. And the repetition through rebuttal just keeps reinforcing the claim in people’s minds.” Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 US election was rigged is one strategic lie many Americans still believe true.
Another tool used by political spin doctors is the “diversionary tactic”. This tactic consists of announcing something to divert attention away from something less politically palatable. Practically every morning, most people wake up to a cacophony of tweets announcing some new political initiative aimed to make us forget about lingering inconveniences we must tolerate.
The “social media blitz” is often orchestrated by spin doctors as few politicians have the time to articulate their messages succinctly enough.
The “picture opportunity” is another favourite to project a positive image of a particular politician, especially when elections approach. In the past, it was mainly about cutting the inauguration ribbon of a new establishment. Now it is more likely to be a photo of a politician hugging a cute child or exercising at the gym in designer sportswear.
Kevin Moloney, a communications expert, believes that there is always a risk that spin doctors threaten the freedom of journalists to select the topic for which they write and how they do it. Still, democracy should be about a better, fairer and more humane life for everyone. But society is not a constant.
People react to different events to form their political opinions and vote for those who best represent their political preferences. Ordinary people need to interpret political images and statements to sift the substance from the form of political messaging.
Victories in elections must not depend so much on how much funds someone has to engage spin doctors. It must depend on the ideas that one has to solve the practical problems of ordinary people.