LAF Note: This guest post was written by the fabulous Jenny Schmitt.
In the hit movie, The Truman Show, everyone’s in on the show except the central character. The 24-hour-a-day show conveniently works in commercials through product placements. While it provides comic points in the movie, most of us now readily accept product placements in our movies, television commercials, fashion magazines, NASCAR driver interviews, even our Olympic Games now come to us with built in advertising. We even turn our eyes on the paid-for “fact-finding missions” (read: vacations) for our elected officials. Our every day is hyper-commercialized and most of us accept it as part of the goings of our modern world.
But are we ready for product placements on page A4 of our local paper? Or on page 15 of our news magazine? If journalism becomes commercialized, how will we decipher the news from the ads?
It seems some news outlets aren’t waiting for you to answer. Oklahoma City’s fine print publication, the Weatherford Daily Herald, shocked us all by not only accepting, but promoting, their new-found success in soliciting freebies in exchange for favorable coverage. It started as an attempt to limit pointless press release pitches from PR pros – a worthy endeavor, but the editor, Emily Sims, is nearly giddy in describing the bounty that now floods her editorial room. The photo alone shows her enthusiasm for the free stuff. And it seems the Daily Herald isn’t the only outlet happy with their new loot. Just this week both Newsweek and The New York Times were outed for their blatant adoration of free swag. The headline says enough “…Newsweek, NY Times writers in swag orgy.”
So, why the ruckus?
While we know different outlets have different editorial slants, none of us want to believe that the journalism we read, rely upon and trust, is grounded in who sent the coolest shwag or swooned the writers with the highest bid. And, just as important, the practice known as “pay-for-play” is an ethical violation for professional journalists and public relations professionals.
As recently as April of this year, the Board of the Society of Professional Journalism grappled with the increasing presence of pay-for-play, even as their guidelines clearly deem the practice unethical. PRSA’s ethical guidelines make clear that paying to get a story placed is a violation for its members unless it’s fully disclosed to the public audiences. Yet some journalists and some PR pros are using the new media environments and pressures as handy excuses to deliver less than transparent stories to you – the reader. They’ve become the producers, actors and supporting cast to your manipulated news environments.
And while there certainly are increased pressures of client demands for media coverage, smaller media rooms, and let’s not forget the increased pressure on journalists to deliver content quickly or with more specific references, are they enough to violate ethical guidelines and break trust with our audiences. No matter the challenge of today’s news environment, or the happy client or relived journalist, we all lose.
And by all, I mean you. Take a peek in the mirror – Truman thought every element of his world was real. Is yours?
Jenny Schmitt (@cloudspark) is the senior spark at CloudSpark, an award-winning communications strategy company based in Atlanta.
