Video News Releases: Deception And Deceit

from the small-step-forward... dept

Jay Rosen writes "Check out this development at PressThink. Bloggers (Campaign Desk and PressThink) press the Public Relations Society of America into taking a stand against fakery in Video News Releases, wherein a PR person claims to be a reporter when reading from a script. This is the outcome of the infamous Karen Ryan case. It's a "tech" story because, as a reader points out in comments @ PressThink, these things come with multiple voice tracks that allow for easy substitution of a TV news person's voice, and--presto--a "story" is done with virtually no effort, and it's all propaganda!" What's more interesting to me, however, is that this shows how technology is breaking down traditional barriers in all directions. With the ongoing (somewhat annoying) debate over whether or not bloggers are journalists, is it a fair question to ask if PR people are journalists as well? What's becoming clear is that, perhaps, no one is the traditional "objective" journalist - but that anyone who takes on the role of a journalist should be prepared to have their stories looked at with much more scrutiny by a crowd of people who have their own voice as well.

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