ABSTRACT
No contemporary study of the relationship between political journalism and democracy can ignore the role of public relations, either as a factor in the production of political journalism, or as a subject of intense journalistic interest in itself. In the first of these contexts the public relations industry has been extensively and critically analysed2 and I will focus here principally on the second, less frequently discussed set of issues. Specifically, what is it about ‘spin’ which so preoccupies the political journalists? What is the substance of their complaint about this sub-species of professional communicator, and do the critics have any valid grounds for concern? Is spin a qualitatively new factor in the construction of British political journalism, or merely the application of a fashionable Americanism to a communicative practice which has a long-established and legitimate place within the public sphere?
