“Spin” — the public relations technique of manipulating the delivery of information — is not simply one-dimensional, argued David Greenberg, journalist and Rutgers University professor of history and of journalism and media studies in a lecture on Thursday. The lecture, titled “The Spinning of the President: The Politics of Image from the Bully Pulpit to the Permanent Campaign,” was sponsored by the American Studies Program.

Greenberg drew upon his 2003 book, “Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image” to discuss the major themes of manipulation presented in his most recent book, “Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency.” He told the audience that the seeds of “Republic of Spin” came out of his previous work, noting of Nixon, there was a “sense of phoniness about him. … [That he was] not only someone who was constructing his image, but someone who seemed to be constructing his image.”

In his lecture, Greenberg explained that spin differs from propaganda because spin implies that a game is going on, that readers understand the inherent manipulation. He explained that he examined the roots and application of the “White House Spin Machine” in his book, focusing on three “strands” of political actors: the presidents, from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama; the spin doctors, who “work on crafting the messages”; and the writers, who cover and critique spin.

The story of spin, he said, begins with Roosevelt, as no similar machine existed before his presidency. Historically, the presidency “was not an office where people planned to do big things,” especially with the media, but Roosevelt saw in the press a potential to disseminate his reforms. Thus, Greenberg said, Roosevelt created the first “public presidency” by touring widely, giving speeches from the Bully Pulpit — authority figures’ platform of power — and setting the precedent of the president using his platform to speak to the public. Some examples of his finest manipulations of the press, Greenberg continued, include his appointing press liaisons, his publicity stunts — Greenberg cited one instance where Roosevelt took a ride in a submarine to call for building the navy — and his early press conferences with groups of five or six reporters.

Greenberg added that the presidents who followed Roosevelt also used spin in their own ways, including Woodrow Wilson’s in-person delivery of his State of the Union addresses, Hoover’s campaign film “Master of Emergencies” (1928), Lyndon Johnson’s packaging of the Vietnam War and Obama’s use of a White House Twitter feed and a videographer.

He then transitioned to a discussion on the second strand of spin actors, including officials who contribute to the packaging and dissemination of the message — he used George W. Bush’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove’s spinning the Iraq War as an example. He also included examples like the first presidential speechwriter, Judson Welliver, whom he credited with fixing Harding’s reputation as a public speaker. Greenberg also mentioned Eisenhower’s television coach, Robert Montgomery, who helped him fully harness the power of the new medium through wardrobe and body language changes.

Pollsters also fall into this category, Greenberg continued, explaining how the first presidential pollster, Emil Hurja, changed the way public opinion is gauged and utilized in the 1930s. Hurja, a former geologist and miner, became a Wall Street data analyst and used his experiences in statistical analysis to reform polling systems. He was the first to realize “you can’t just ask random people, you need to have a true sample that accurately reflects the American public,” Greenberg explained, adding that Hurja’s work gained credibility after he correctly predicted both Franklin Roosevelt’s first election and the Democratic win in the midterm elections of 1934. Greenberg drew comparisons between Hurja and modern political statistician Nate Silver, explaining how both have been “described as no biases, just like a machine.”

Finally, for the third strand — the writers and reporters — Greenberg noted that there is “a rolling argument … about what the implications [of spin] are” in journalism and public discourse.

He explained that there are different types of writers and critics who examine spin, noting that the realists — those who are critical of spin but understand it to be an integral and sometimes even beneficial part of politics — are the “silent heroes” of his book. As an example of a critical approach to spin, Greenberg cited journalist and scholar Vance Packard’s work “The Hidden Persuaders,” which looks at television advertising in the late 1950s and examines the similarities between product advertisement and political advertisement.

He concluded his lecture by discussing what he learned throughout the research process for his book. Spin itself is not new, he told the audience, noting that the ancient Greeks discussed the application of rhetoric in a very similar manner. Moreover, “spin is not all powerful,” he added. “What is much more striking … is the limits of presidential persuasion, how difficult it is for presidents or other politicians to change our minds.”

Lastly, he emphasized, spin is “not all bad” and can be especially useful when used to advocate for a cause. “The answer is not to just deplore spin and somehow declare our democracy bankrupt,” he said. “But to try to help us understand how it works, to expose the fictions, to see how it plays on us and how we can better understand it.”