|
|
blog roll
|
short attention span theatre...,
2006-04-05 12:40:29
| Main |
the hovering weather balloons of doom...,
2006-04-13 19:48:32
freedom of the press junkets:
Over a ten-month period, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) documented television newsrooms' use of 36 video news releases [3] (VNRs) a small sample of the thousands produced each year. CMD identified 77 television stations, from those in the largest to the smallest markets, that aired these VNRs or related satellite media tours [4] (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers. Collectively, these 77 stations reach more than half of the U.S. population. The VNRs and SMTs whose broadcast CMD documented were produced by three broadcast PR firms for 49 different clients, including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One. In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety.
Read the full report [pdf].
They broadcast these things as their own work because it's a free lunch. News organizations are understaffed and overcapitalized....
No wait, that's the explanation for the print media - which does this shit but mostly in the fashion section and the Washington Bureau, so they do it with wink at least. Broadcasters just utterly despise the public and even if there were a profit motive to adequately inform viewers would still go out of their way to demonstrate their disdain and condescension for the mass public and increasingly me at every opportunity. Right!
:: posted by buermann @ 2006-04-06 10:51:05 CST |
link
|
|
|
|
