Spin doctoring in British and German election campaigns - How the press isbeing confronted with a new quality of political PR

The 1997 British and 1998 German general elections showed striking parallel s and distinctive differences in the way Blair and Schroeder delivered thei r campaigns and defeated long-sitting conservative governments. Of vital im portance was a new quality of political public relations called 'spin docto ring'. In this, the British Labour Party served as a kind of role model for the German Social Democratic Party. This article traces the origins and di fferent meanings of 'spin doctoring' in both countries, distinguishes betwe en media-related and non-media-related spin activities and analyses it agai nst the background of the specific national contexts. The aims and methods of political spin doctors in modern election campaigns are described, parti cularly their half antagonistic, half symbiotic relationship with journalis ts. A comparative content analysis of the press coverage of the last genera l elections reveals that the two countries' journalists dealt with politica l spin doctors very differently. In Great Britain,'spin doctoring high gear ' predominated, in Germany it was 'spin doctoring low gear'. British journa lists covered their efforts extensively and critically, mainly because some of them turned to unusually aggressive methods towards the media. German j ournalists were less likely to report extensively on spin doctoring. This c an be explained by the fact that it is still in a stage of development in G ermany and - for that very reason - that German journalists are still less interested in the strategic inner perspective of the electoral campaigning.