Editing Spin (propaganda) (section)

== Impact on elections ==
The extent of the impact of "spin doctors" is contested, though their presence is still recognized in the political environment. The [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 General election]] in the United Kingdom saw a landslide victory for New Labour with a 10.3% swing from [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] to [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], with help from newspapers such as ''The Sun'' towards which [[Alastair Campbell]] focused his spinning tactics as he greatly valued their support.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zi5dDwAAQBAJ&q=The+Labour+Party%3A+continuity+and+change+in+the+making+of+%E2%80%98New%E2%80%99+Labour.&pg=PR1|title=The Labour Party: continuity and change in the making of 'New' Labour|last=Fielding|first=Steven|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=9781403940445|location=New York}}</ref> The famous newspaper headline 'The Sun Backs Blair' was a key turning point in the campaign which provided New Labour with a lot of confidence and hope of increased electoral support.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1997/mar/18/past.roygreenslade|title=It's the Sun wot's switched sides back to Blair|last=Greensalde|first=Roy|date=1997|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 November 2019}}</ref> The change in political alignment had an impact on the electorate, with the number of individuals voting for Labour that read switching newspapers rising by 19.4%, compared to only 10.8% by those that did not read switching newspapers; a study conducted by Ladd and Lenz.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ladd|first1=Jonathan M. and|last2=Lenz|first2=Gabriel S.|date=2009|title=Exploiting a Rare Communication Shift to Document the Persuasive Power of the News Media|journal=American Journal of Political Science|volume=53|issue=2|pages=394–410|doi=10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00377.x}}</ref>