Hacks, Flacks, and Spin Doctors Meet the Media: An Examination of the Congressional Press Secretary as a (Potential) Public Relations Professional

Downes, Edward J.

doi:10.1207/s1532754xjprr1004_03

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Whereas PR practitioners are adept at constructing façades, leaks involve attempts to crack façades; whereas they deal in information control, leaks are conducive to situations in which 'information control tends to get out of control' (Wilsnack, cited by Redlinger and Sunny, 1980). This does not rule out the existence of the more sophisticated, more manipulative and often less formal type of PR, known as 'spin doctoring' (Downes, 1998;Esser et al, 2000, Sumpter andTankard, 1994), which entered the Israeli scene during the 1990s (Caspi and Leshem, 2007: 131). However, the data suggest that the direct contribution of spin doctors to leaks or, what is more likely, their identifi cation as members of the community of PR practitioners, was marginal at most when the study was conducted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The anatomy of leaks Tracing the path of unauthorized disclosure in the Israeli press

Reich

2008

Journalism

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An innovative methodology of face-to-face reconstruction interviews with the reporters who had authored a sample of news items allowed wide and systematic research access to one of the most sensitive and virtually unapproachable spheres of journalism -leaks. The main fi ndings were that (1) leaks were highly prevalenteach fi fth item involved the sensitive practice; (2) the dominant leakers were senior sources; (3) the favorite channel for leaks was the telephone; (4) leaked stories were initiated equally by reporters and sources; and (5) leaks were cross-verifi ed with additional sources much more frequently than non-leaked items. The study, which took place in Israel, focused on national daily press reporters and their contacts with news sources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The anatomy of leaks Tracing the path of unauthorized disclosure in the Israeli press

Reich

2008

Journalism

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“…While these reflections could be interpreted as defensive on the part of the interviewees, these practitioner insights are echoed in the literature. For instance, the perception of shared goals and values between journalism and PR (Kopenhaver, 1985; Pieczka, 2006; Sallot et al, 1998; Sinaga and Callison, 2008); the presence of ‘spin’ in reporting (Burns, 2013: 11; De Vreese, 2005: 59; Downes, 1998: 281; Mahoney, 2013: 130) and the role of advocacy and partisanship in journalism (Janowitz, 1975; Levendusky, 2013; Waisbord, 2008).…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The advocacy continuum: Towards a theory of advocacy in journalism

Fisher

2016

Journalism

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The goal of advocacy is commonly used to distinguish journalism from public relations practice. At the same time, there is a strong tradition of advocacy reporting in journalism that weakens this point of distinction. In an attempt to reconcile this apparent contradiction, this article draws on the concept of a continuum to explain extremes in journalism practice and 'contingency theory' in public relations, which posits a range of variables can influence the degree of advocacy adopted by public relations practitioners when dealing with an organization's target publics. This article contends that the degree and type of advocacy present in journalism is also dependent on a range of macro, organizational, journalism production, source and personal factors. It argues that each work of journalism falls along a continuum of advocacy, ranging from subtle displays at one end to overt at the other, where some stories might be hard to distinguish from public relations.

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“…In the vast majority of the studies (Brown & Vincent, 1995;Downes, 1998;Mancini, 1999;Hiebert, 2004;De Vreese and Elenbaas, 2009;Van Dalen, Albaek and De Vreese, 2001), the authors clearly identify the figure of the spin doctors with the activity of public relations and make a negative approach of their activity, linking it to cynical, manipulative and rather unethical activities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We analysed other studies dealing with specific issues related to the perception of the activity of spin doctors and the interaction between politics and the media in different contexts: the Reagan administration and its management called Irangate (Brown, 1995); Figure analysis of the so-called American 'congressional press secretaries' (Downes, 1998); defending the preservation of the role of public relations as a two-way communication, thanks to new technologies, as opposed to one-way communication and propaganda spins (Hiebert, 2005); analysis of the effects that the management of the press and publicity has on the perception of public relations specialised in the field of politics (De Vreese and Elenbaas, 2009) and, finally, Van Dalen, Albaek and De Vreese (2011 ) focus on the relationship between journalists in politics and politicians to explain the recurrent political cynicism among political reporters from four European countries: United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany and Spain. It so happens that this study shows that, compared to their European counterparts, Spanish journalists are those with a more cynical view of their politicians, because they have a negative view of the role of spin doctors.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the spin doctors a figure of priority interest for public relations?.

Alejandre¹,

Aira²

2019

IROCAMM

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El autor/es garantiza/n la autoría y originalidad del artículo, y asumen la plena y exclusiva responsabilidad por los daños y perjuicios que pudieran producirse como consecuencia de reclamaciones de terceros respecto del contenido, autoría o titularidad del contenido del mismo. AbstractThis research has a twofold goal: on the one hand, it describes, from a theoretical point of view, the importance of the figure and role of the spin doctors, also known as communication political advisers, from the perspective of public relations; and by another, the article analyses quantitatively and qualitatively, the presence and treatment of the figure of the spin doctor in the main academic journals included in the Journal Citation Reports in the fields of communication, public relations and political communication from de point of view of public relations discipline. The results of the research confirm the notable influence of public relations in the origin, definition and professional activity of spin doctors. By contrast, this study shows the low presence of the spin doctor concept in the academic literature, although the articles analysed confirm the importance of this figure from the point of view of public relations.

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Hacks, Flacks, and Spin Doctors Meet the Media: An Examination of the Congressional Press Secretary as a (Potential) Public Relations Professional

Cited by 15 publications

References 12 publications

The anatomy of leaks Tracing the path of unauthorized disclosure in the Israeli press

The anatomy of leaks Tracing the path of unauthorized disclosure in the Israeli press

The advocacy continuum: Towards a theory of advocacy in journalism

Are the spin doctors a figure of priority interest for public relations?.

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