Spinwatch: says: 'In our global media age, the role of the news media is coming under ever greater scrutiny. As more news channels and newspapers offer 24 hour news on air, in print and on the internet, there is increasing ability for the media to not only report the news but also influence public opinion. But just as the reach and importance of the media is growing, there is evidence that it is downplaying the most important political issues of our time in preference for softer “human interest” stories.
This very topic was one of the issues being debated at a conference in September at the University of Glasgow called “Communication and Conflict: Propaganda, Spin and Lobbying in the media age.” Over three days of debate, issues such as war propaganda, war reporting, government spin, and media and the Middle East were hotly discussed.
In a session on “Spin and investigative reporting” an award-winning journalist from the BBC, who had spent months working undercover to expose racism in the British police, described what he thought was the most important “story of the decade”.
Was it the war in Iraq, and the bloody carnage that has seen over one million people die? No. Was it the huge issue of climate change, and the increasing occurrence of floods and drought? No. Was it the huge debate about whether Iran should be allowed nuclear weapons or not? No.