Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumConan points out media scripts. Makes me wonder who is writing the news.
Wow, just wow!
abq e streeter
(7,658 posts)tomm2thumbs
(13,297 posts)I imagine they only scratched the surface on how many local stations did the same story, and so many others
[center]1500 newspapers...
1100 magazines... 9000 radio stations...
1500 TV stations... 2400 publishers...
[font size=4]Owned by only
6 corporations[/font][/center]
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)it has yet to be investigated or explained by any News organization. It really is a great depiction of how lame the new's media has become.
bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)not new, but seeing this compilation is stunning.
JHB
(37,158 posts)...at least for most in-studio segments. Copy that's provided with the video news release (VNR) is copy they don't have to go to the time and effort of writing themselves.
Unless someone in the news organization (particularly in management) is thumping a drum for original content or putting their own stamp on VNR content, "simpler and easier" will win out.
Response to icymist (Original post)
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Unknown Beatle
(2,672 posts)Rough_Enough
Skittles
(153,150 posts)welcome to DU
fasttense
(17,301 posts)"There are production companies that churn out these generic news stories for everyone to use on a slow news day, or when they have a hole in the program for whatever reason."
And why are these hole fillers so absolutely boring and NOT of any news worthiness? Why are these hole fillers NOT about liberal ideas but mostly conservative capitalist cheerleader crap?
I think it's very similar to news station using think tank and White House pre-packaged material as if it comes from an impartial newsworthy source.
JHB
(37,158 posts)...but usually their VNRs are more more specific (i.e., more news items than "human interest"/filler items), or else they're just swamped by all the other ones out there.
Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)crap.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)by not having local writers? After all, who really gets a chance to see more than the broadcast of their "local" station?
Stevepol
(4,234 posts)I'm probably off the mark, but I wonder if this is a Fox News staple that's now required for its hosts or if it has just been adopted in the regular news segments of local news.
When your news and weather hosts are so often bimbos or illiterates it's no wonder they need prompts for the simplest segues.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Ezlivin
(8,153 posts)from whence all this flows?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,702 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Would be good to know how it was produced, by whom, etc.
JHB
(37,158 posts)It's a PR tool that's become a staple, especially in local news. There's a suggested script for the lead-in (kind of obvious what it was with this example), followed by a video segment produced by some other party. And the big question is who the other parties are. It would have been interesting to see the video segment that followed, to figure out what they were trying to sell -- probably a retail association trying to promote a "come on, everybody's doing it" attitude to encourage more spending during the holidays.
They're very attractive for local stations because it gives them material to air at little or no cost, and the lead-in by the local station anchors gives the impression that it's something the station did on it's own, not something that they got from elsewhere and just used verbatim.
Critics of VNRs have called the practice deceptive or a propaganda technique, particularly when the segment is not identified to the viewers as a VNR. Firms producing VNRs disagree and equate their use to a press release in video form and point to the fact that editorial judgement in the worthiness, part or whole, of a VNR's content is still left in the hands of Journalists, Program Producers or the like. The United States Federal Communications Commission is currently investigating the practice of VNRs.
***
VNRs have been used extensively in business since at least the early 1980s. Corporations such as Microsoft and Philip Morris, and the pharmaceutical industry generally, have all made use of the technique.
According to the trade-group Public Relations Society of America, a VNR is the video equivalent of a press release.[2] and presents a client's case in an attractive, informative format. The VNR placement agency seeks to garner media attention for the client's products, services, brands or other marketing goals. The VNR affords local TV stations free broadcast quality materials for use in reports offered by such stations.
The Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director John Stauber disagreed. "The use of VNRs amounts to systematic deception of viewers, both by the hidden interested parties behind them, and by news organizations with impure motives themselves," he said.
Reporting on a September 2005 seminar on new media, Media Daily News noted that VNRs "which can look like regular news stories to the unaided eye--can be placed in local or national newscasts." On that panel was Larry Moskowitz, the president and CEO of Medialink Worldwide. "If there is news in your brands we'll find a way to put your brands in your news. In a sense, it's product placement, but it's earned a place on the shelf," Media Daily News reported. [14]
Medialink Worldwide, one of the largest producers and distributors of VNRs, states in its 2003 annual report that a "VNR is a television news story that communicates an entity's public relations or corporate message. It is paid for by the corporation or organization seeking to announce news and is delivered without charge to the media." [15]
While the company likens VNRs as akin to the traditional hard copy news release, it acknowledges they are widely used in newsrooms. "Produced in broadcast news style, VNRs relay the news of a product launch, medical discovery, corporate merger event, timely feature or breaking news directly to television news decision-makers who may use the video and audio material in full or edited form. Most major television stations in the world now use VNRs, some on a regular basis," Medialink states.
As O'Brien comments, "I don't find that funnyI find it scary."
This would appear to be one more example of what Free Press and others were warning us about a few years backfake news segments that are really just corporate PR planted in the middle of a "newscast."
The FCC should, in theory, do something about this manipulation of the news on the public airwaves. But the commission has been extremely slow to act. As James Rainey reported in the L.A. Times (3/30/11), two stations faced slap-on-the-wrist fines for airing commercials dressed up as newsfour years after the offending broadcasts aired.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)media wonders why many quit watching.
DamnYankeeInHouston
(1,365 posts)DU has been my first click for ten years. I just dropped cable. Who needs TV?
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)Warpy
(111,253 posts)The only thing I'd tune in to see was the local weather. It was the only thing that had an outside chance of being right.
They've done canned segments like this forever. I remember the same stories with the same words being delivered on local news from Boston and Providence when I lived in an area that got both and that was 40 years ago.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Warpy
(111,253 posts)and I had a lot of catching up to do. Now it's TCM, an interesting science show or extremely rare entertainment that is good enough to put up with commercials to see. Or I have a large pile of DVDs. I didn't bother with any of the premium channels.
And I still don't watch televised news. It's worthless and I got sick to death of being lied to by omission.