The Centre for Media and Democracy - Countering Spin?

A trend I am noticing while researching spin in the context of political communications is the growing number of sources such as websites, blogs, news reports which aim to help the public 'counter' spin.

One such source is the Centre for Media and Democracy. The Centre describes itself as; "a non-profit, non-partisan, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism."

They aim to help the public by;

" - Countering propaganda by investigating and reporting on behind-the-scenes public relations campaigns by corporations, industries, governments and other powerful institutions.

- Informing and assisting grassroots citizen activism that promotes public health, economic justice, ecological sustainability and human rights.

- Promoting media literacy to help the public recognize the forces shaping the information they receive about issues that affect their lives.

- Sponsoring "open content" media that enable citizens from all walks of life to "be the media" and to participate in creating media content "

While some might say that this is a lofty (possibly unattainable) target or that the organization is simply a special interest group, I commend their initiative and respect their goal.

Spin can be seen (in my humble opinion) as incorrect or manipulated information. Groups or websites such as this Centre try to counter the effects of the dissemination of incorrect information through educating and informing the public about the nature of spin and its effect on them.

Projects such as the PR Watch website (see link at end of post) which "investigates and exposes how the public relations industry and other professional propagandists manipulate public information, perceptions and opinion on behalf of governments and special interests", the Spin of the Day website (see link at end of post) which "offers web-based daily reporting on public relations, propaganda and media spin" and public education programs held in conjunction with the National Press Club of America aim to raise awareness amongst the public about the relationship between spin and their democratic rights.

For me this is a positive trend, which I hope to see grow. It highlights a growing desire amongst the public to bypass political spin e informed and educated
A trend I am noticing while researching spin in the context of political communications is the growing number of sources such as websites, blogs, news reports which aim to help the public 'counter' spin.

One such source is the Centre for Media and Democracy. The Centre describes itself as; "a non-profit, non-partisan, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism."

They aim to help the public by;

" - Countering propaganda by investigating and reporting on behind-the-scenes public relations campaigns by corporations, industries, governments and other powerful institutions.

- Informing and assisting grassroots citizen activism that promotes public health, economic justice, ecological sustainability and human rights.

- Promoting media literacy to help the public recognize the forces shaping the information they receive about issues that affect their lives.

- Sponsoring "open content" media that enable citizens from all walks of life to "be the media" and to participate in creating media content "

While some might say that this is a lofty (possibly unattainable) target or that the organization is simply a special interest group, I commend their initiative and respect their goal.

Spin can be seen (in my humble opinion) as incorrect or manipulated information. Groups or websites such as this Centre try to counter the effects of the dissemination of incorrect information through educating and informing the public about the nature of spin and its effect on them.

Projects such as the PR Watch website (see link at end of post) which "investigates and exposes how the public relations industry and other professional propagandists manipulate public information, perceptions and opinion on behalf of governments and special interests", the Spin of the Day website (see link at end of post) which "offers web-based daily reporting on public relations, propaganda and media spin" and public education programs held in conjunction with the National Press Club of America aim to raise awareness amongst the public about the relationship between spin and their democratic rights.

For me this is a positive trend, which I hope to see grow. It highlights a growing desire amongst the public to bypass political spin and instead be educated about how they may be misinformed through the dissemination of spin.

A link that leads to PRWatch and give info about CMD:
http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/index.html

A link for Spin of the Day: