THAT [L]-WORD THAT COMES WITH MISSED UNDERSTANDINGS

 

political spin ... politics

Political spin, in politics, the attempt to control or influence communication in order to deliver one’s preferred message.

Spin is a pejorative term often used in the context of public relations practitioners and political communicators. It is used to refer to the sophisticated selling of a specific message that is heavily biased in favour of one’s own position and that employs maximum management of the media with the intention of maintaining or exerting control over the situation, often implying deception or manipulation.

In the political context, it is often associated with government press conferences in which it is understood that the press secretary or the government official has a vested interest in communicating a political message to have a desired outcome, often to the neglect of delivering the full truth of a situation. In such situations, the press conference room is sometimes cynically referred to as the “spin room” and the schedule of briefings as the “spin cycle.”