Public, I have your best interest at heart.

Public Relations has got to have gained its bad reputation from somewhere, there must be some bad PR practitioners but that’s not me, I don’t want to be a “queen of spin”

Reading through “Mastering Public Relations” by Anthony Davis he stated that

“Spin is ubiquitous and synonymous with deceit, trickery or, at best, exaggeration, wishful thinking or fanciful interpretation”

Who wants to be connected with that? There are many different spin techniques such as; selectively presenting facts and quotes that support your position, non-denial denial, phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths, euphemisms to disguise or promote one’s agenda and “burying bad news” announcing one popular thing at the same time as several things, hoping that the media will focus on the popular item.

So then how can public interest be related with public relations practitioners as they are such “spin doctors”, well there are such stories and events which are in public interest which PR practitioners have a helping hand in. Spin is often related to propaganda, it is used to persuade people or to turn their interest into what you are selling. Spin is most often thought of when it comes to press releases so anyone who is involved may be classed as a “spin doctor”
Pubic interest is defined as:

“Welfare of the general public (in contrast to the selfish interest of a person, group, or firm) in which the whole society has a stake and which warrants recognition, promotion, and protection by the government and its agencies Despite the vagueness of the term, public interest is claimed generally by governments in matters of state secrecy and confidentiality it is approximated by comparing expected gains and potential costs or losses associated with a design, policy, program, or project.”

(Definition from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/public-interest.html )


This shows that there is a definite distinction between public interest and interesting to the public. Most people myself included are more drawn to interesting to the public story For Example; the Wayne Rooney scandal. However if we, the public, found out we have not been given all the details in a story which can be classed as in “public interest” then the media is in serious trouble.

So while I was thinking about this I investigated stories which the public wasn’t told the whole story and I found that in Yorkshire there was a kidnapping story where the police did not publish that the uncle knew information and then had to reprint when they discovered that the Uncle was actually involved in the kidnap. This caused the public to feel outraged as they were misinformed and vital information was withheld, especially from the residents in the local area.

This got me thinking, how much information is too much information? If you tell the public something that may cause them harm and therefore go against the ethical pillar or to risk the outraged public when they don’t get what they want. There is a very fine line to which the media must work, to let the public know what’s going on without harming anyone.

I believe that often with these kinds of situations, harm may be caused in the short run and as long as it is not horrific for the reader/viewer then it is more important to get the full story across rather than someone else leaking the story and infuriating the public.

Madonna’s video for the song “Justify my love” because it contained sadomasochism which caused some viewers distress and harm and was therefore banned, people felt that this video made them feel physically sick; this I believe is too far. However, the single managed to get to number one for two consecutive weeks. Therefore when it comes to gaining attention whether it be for a celebrity or an advertisement, often the controversy makes the public more interested and it gains the celebrity or product/organisation more publicity.

As the saying goes all publicity’s good publicity. Which I shall definitely keep in the back of my mind.