Ewen, Stuart. PR! A Social History of Spin. New York: BasicBooks
(HarperCollins), 1996. 480 pages.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, corporate monopolies were
targeted by muckrakers, and elites became nervous about the unbridled power
of the great unwashed. Guided by public relations pioneers such as Ivy Lee,
Walter Lippmann, and Edward Bernays, who in turn were influenced by several
writers in Europe, popular opinion and culture began to be seen as something
that must be controlled for the good of society. Corporations hired public
relations consultants, and governments got into the act as well. A social
science emerged that specialized in mass psychology and manipulation. (Lest
this seem trivial, fast forward to 1999, when the spinmeisters and pollsters
rule the world, and universities lump journalism departments into "schools of
communications," where they flounder amid advertising and public relations
courses. The lines separating these three seem hopelessly muddled by now.)
Stuart Ewen, a media studies professor at Hunter College, presents
the corporate side of the spin story, as well as some aspects of government
involvement (such as FDR's use of mass media to promote domestic programs).
But the book needs another chapter: there's no mention of the psychological
warfare heavyweights from the secret state, who enjoyed unlimited resources
during the Eisenhower years. Fortunately, this is covered in "Science of
Coercion" by Christopher Simpson (1996), also indexed in NameBase.
ISBN 0-465-06168-0
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