I find politics fascinating, so I’ve been closely following the party conference season over the last few weeks.

Newsnight has been a big part of this and it was an interview between Jeremy Paxman and Boris Johnson on the show that really grabbed my attention. Not because of the colourful political jousting that went on (though it’s worth watching), but more Paxman’s accusation that because Cameron is a former ‘PR man’ he isn’t to be trusted.

This got me thinking: does the PR industry really have such a tarnished reputation? Is there such distrust of what we do and say?

Maybe the accusation is fair. After all, our role is to help brands – be they companies or individuals – come across in a positive light and certainly, especially in politics, there have been many underhand or distrustful methods used to achieve this goal.

But I think, despite what has or hasn’t happened in the past, change is coming (if you’ll excuse the political rhetoric): the internet is forcing PR to modify the way it does its work.

Online, consumer empowerment and democratisation, combined with the rise of social media, challenges brands to build more transparent and trustworthy relationships with those they seek to influence. Anyone that hopes to ’spin’ in our socially connected digital world, will be found out and there are already numerous examples of where this has happened.

The web has forced businesses to change their attitude to reputation management and embrace more open communication methods – focusing not on hiding or spinning the truth, but on building two-way, collaborative dialogues.

It was good to read last week that First Direct has announced a new microsite that will aggregate every mention of the brand online – good and bad – from more than 5m social media sites.

This is a good example of the transparent, ‘anti-spin’ strategy that online marketers should be employing as they try to open up access to brands and engage with their publics.

Forget the futile debates about who is best placed to manage social campaigns. Let’s continue to embrace this new way of communicating and begin to change the reputation from which our own industry seems to suffer.

Will David ‘the PR man’ Cameron be able to run an election campaign void of spin? Will the PR industry be able to redeem itself by embracing new communication methods in this digital age? Or am I just being too naive?

Danny Whatmough (@DannyWhatmough) is a PR Consultant at Wildfire. He blogs at DannyWhatmough.com and the Wildfire Blog.