News stations and advertising -- fake news reports

[Dak]

Wasn't sure exactly where this belonged, so i figured that news reporters integrity probably belongs in politics.

 

I read this blog entry on 'video news releases' (vnrs)... it's on a computer security blog, so it focuses on computer companies such as trend micro and intel, but if you follow the link to the centre for media and democracy you can see lots of companies using this technique.

 

Basically, a company will make a news-reportesqu advert, and then send it to a news company such as fox, who will skin it up with their logo and stuff and then introduce it on their news program as 'a report on x by our reporter bobby mcbobson'.

 

The advert then insidiously sneaks in below the radar quite efficiently... the vnr by trend micro, for example, starts off by briefly explaining the growing crime of identity theft and phishing, including a testiment by a woman who was apparently taken in by a phishing email, and an 'interview' with a trend micro representitive. The narrator then goes on to give some (valid) security tips from 'experts' reccomending, for example, that you dont reply to unsolicited emails that seem to be from your bank (duh) before segueing smoothly into a reccomendation by the narrator to use software such as PC-Cillin* (by trend micro) as your 'first line of defence'...

 

Dress that up as a news report coming from a well established news source, and it's easy enough to assume that

1/ identity theft/'cyber crime' is a growing phenomena (which it is),

2/ the news team, therefore, decided to do a report on it,

3/ as part of that report, the 'reporter' interviewed a victim of phishing, and a computer-security company rep, and

4/ the program is reccomended/endorsed by the news team

 

With reguards to the latter, i personally would have assumed that the news team had looked around, picked a good security company, asked for an interview, and mentioned PC-cillian as an example of security software after establishing that it was effective, and, tbh, prbably becuase the creators of PC-cillian had agreed to an interview (not that it's implicitly stated that PC-cillian is made by trend micro), either as a 'thank-you' for agreeing to the interview, or because their rep had started to talk about it and they wanted to explain what the rep was talking about, but i wouldnt have assumed that the entire 'news report' was made by trend-micro themselves to plug PC-cillian.

 

From the centre for media and democracy:

 

One reason [for using VNRs] is what public relations practitioners call the third party technique. Praise for Brand X or for Corporation Y has much more credibility when it's relayed by a seemingly-independent reporter or commentator in a news setting, rather than by an actor in a commercial—or by a corporate spokesperson in any setting.

 

So... what are your thoughts on this? Personally, i think it's insidiouse and wrong -- the news stations should deliver news, not adverts dressed up as news, and if a company advertises at me id rather know about it than have them attempt to essentially trick me into thinking that 'reputable' third-parties with the ability to make informed desisions reccomend their product -- but is it actually any different than when a news company (genuinely) descide to make a report on a news-worthy phenomenon, (genuinely) chose a company that operates within the field being discussed and interviews them and allows a little plugging of their product as a reward? Or, for that matter, is it really that different from when a celebrity is payed to personally reccomend and endorse a product?

 

Personally, i think theres a huge difference, but id be interested in other oppinions.

 

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*I dont really want the post about why i think this form of advertising is wrong to also be free advertising for a company that uses this form of advertising, so... see here for alternatives to PC-cillain (the firewall info's a bit out of date... just get zone alarm).

[husmusen]

I think it stinks.

 

Husmusen.

[ecoli]

I beleive the news is allowed to endorse any product they want... as long as it isn't a news station run by the public sector. I can only assume that money changes hands in these situations.

 

please note - just because it may be legal doesn't mean I think it's morally right.