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NOT LOCAL, NOT NEWS

KEY POINTS

» Surveys show that the public most trusts their local news team to tell them what is happening in theworld, but local news departments are increasingly facing severe budgetary cutbacks which impact their ability to produce newsworthy reporting.

» Public relations firms provide ready-made, pre-packaged stories to news stations around the country.These stories, known as video news releases (VNRs), are created for clients and produced by formerjournalists who are now PR professionals.

» Because of the budgetary crisis, TV news departments are using VNRs in their news broadcast. News directors could label them, but if they did, they would be admitting that they use stories not produced by journalists.

» Spotting video news releases in the news requires a careful eye. Watch for camera shots that a local news team wouldn’t be able to gather.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Does anyone in your family watch the nightly news? What other news sources do you and your family members have?

2. Video news releases are created for a company, produced by a PR firm, aired on a news program, and absorbed by the public. Who has the greatest responsibility to tell us that VNRs are regularly used – the company, PR firm or journalists?

3. Is a VNR a valid news source? What makes a VNR different from a news report done by journalists?

EXERCISES

1. Have students tape local and national news for several days. Have them try to identify the use of video newsrelease footage. Review suspect reporting in class. Students may want to call their local station to ask if the news department used VNR footage for the story in question (Note: the students may not get a truthful answer,but if they do, have them engage the person they are speaking with about the station’s policy on using VNRs.)

THIRD PARTY ADVOCACY

KEY POINTS

» One of the most popular PR techniques relies on a third party, a person with no apparent connectionsto the company or industry, to advocate for a client’s product or issue. The idea is that the public wouldn’t trust a car manufacturer that said global warming isn’t a problem, but would more likely trust an atmospheric scientist saying the same thing.

» Third party advocacy works because what experts say is generally trusted by the public.

» Whenever you see an expert saying something you suspect isn’t true, type his/her name into an

Internet search engine to research his/her affiliations.

» Another strategy used by PR firms is the front group, an organization – usually non-profit – that is set up to look independent, but which is funded and controlled by an industry.

» Whenever you hear a euphemistic sounding name such as the Water Environment Federation or the Temperate Forest Council, you can likely turn the needle 180 degrees and find out who’s really behind the organization.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why is expertise so widely trusted?

2. How else, aside from expertise, might information be conveyed to the public?

3. Third party advocacy and front groups both seek to distance messages from their source. Can we make sound decisions about political, social and economic issues in our lives if we don’t know where information is coming from?

EXERCISES

1. Creating a front group. After reviewing the concept of front groups, create one. Divide students into groups and have them create a name and mission statement for such an organization. Then, have each group present their front group to the class. The rest of the class will try to guess what the front group’s real agenda is andwho would likely fund such a group (which interests would want such a group created).

2. Find front groups using the Internet. Which organizations do students think may be purposefully hidingtheir true agendas. How might the funding source affect what you see as the group’s position on a specific issue?