Video New Releases... fake news ?
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 21:32 Video News Releases (VNR); video clips created by companies and organisation and then distributed to the media, are being labelled as "fake news" by the Center for Media & Democracy in the US.
They published a report back in April 2006 which I just read. Very interesting to see how the use of these VNRs happens without any form of transparency. Here's a recent update published yesterday.
"Over a ten-month period, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) documented television newsrooms' use of 36 video news releases (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 (SMTs) in 98 separate instances, without disclosure to viewers."
New media thrive on transparency, but is this always the case ? Are there VNR type videos on YouTube ? Do they disclose who made them and if they are promo material or real news ?
I just did a very quick scan for YouTube clips about mobile phones and found these about Siemens phones. The person who makes these only seems to cover phones from this specific brand. Maybe someone in PR or marketing you might think...
But even then, new media are all about 2 way communications and so is YouTube - look at the comments below the demo clips of certain models... People give their feedback and it is not always positive.
Maybe we should do the same with "un-transparent" VNRs ? But then, if you do not look closely enough, you would think they are part of the real news... A European research on this would be good.
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