An Aussie Look at Spin Warns of the Media/PR Imbalance
August 9, 2007 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
Among Australia’s 10,000 or so public relations and lobbying folks, there are those who practice the dark arts.
So says Bob Burton in a new book Inside Spin: The dark underbelly of the PR industry.
Burton categorizes think tanks as a particularly evil invention that disguises research and commentary on issues to look like they’re from an unbiased third party.
Unlike campaigns designed to promote a product or raise awareness about a disease, unethical PR campaigns invisibly influence public policy, says Burton:
"More troubling are the campaigns designed to invisibly shape public policy and involve the covert funding of think tanks or the courting and co-option of politicians, government agencies, journalists and non-government organisations. Big-budget PR campaigns, which are largely the preserve of deep-pocketed companies and government agencies, have the ability to smother dissenting points of view and degrade the quality of our democracy." (Sydney Morning Herald article, based on research from the book)
Burton is an editor for the Centre for Media and Democracy, a non-profit watchdog group that battles unethical practices by "investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism.’
According to the Centre, Burton’s book is being published in Australia this week. There’s no indication on the publisher’s website of any planned release outside of Australia.
Update: Oops! Forgot to mention Burton’s take on the imbalance of PR and media resources, as I mention in the headline. Here’s his take, which echoes what many critics have said about the issue:
"Part of the success of PR relies on exploiting the faultlines of a media under pressure to produce ever bigger profits. For example, radio and television stations often use video and audio news releases, which are often broadcast in part or in full without disclosing they were produced by PR firms for their clients."
Tags: public relations, communications, lobbying, australia, centre for media and democracy, politics, government, media, journalism, propaganda, bob burton, books, business
Oooo, this looks like a good one… thanks!
Anne
http://www.thegoldenpencil.com
Beating the drum over VNRs is a waste of time.
Nobody is touching them now. The FCC is about to bring the hammer down, and all of the big broadcast owners would rather handle something less radioactive, like porn.
I wish the writers of these books would go further, looking at “think tanks” in a more objective manner. No one seems to complain about the “think tanks” that shaped the so-called “progressive” US government policies of the past sixty years. Some think tanks have become household names, even if most households are ignorant to the underpinnings. (Brookings Institution, anyone..?)