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Spin Doctoring and Propaganda

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Submitted By laurenfotta
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Week 4 Assignment
Critical Thinking Exercise - Spin Doctoring

This assignment is worth up to 80 points and references TCO 4 as it applies to impression management and TCO 6 as it applies to the role of social influence in shaping attitudes and behaviors. We will apply course concepts from Myers Chapter 7 (Persuasion) to the following case:

Case. Spin doctoring is form of impression management that has been in the repertoire of public relations practitioners for four decades. The term refers to the tactic of shifting the focus off of the negative and harmful aspects of something by substituting another issue that has positive connotations. Spin doctors change the terms of public perception and debate using the mass media, which today includes blogs and social media like Facebook. Spin doctoring is an international phenomenon the serves the interests of organizations in every sector of society.

The tobacco industry is considered to be the classic case of spin doctoring. After 1966 when the Surgeon General of the U.S. pronounced that cigarette packages must carry a health warning, the tobacco industry found a way to offset the damaging publicity by sponsoring sports and arts events and giving grants for community development. By de-emphasizing the dangers of smoking and emphasizing the positive contributions being made to community life, Big Tobacco trivialized the health problems and turned attention instead to its displays of corporate social responsibility.

A contemporary example of spin doctoring relates to the claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which was the original rationale for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. When the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction proved to be faulty, the debate was quickly and skillfully shifted by spin doctors to a humanitarian argument that the Iraqi people must be freed from

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