Unjournalism

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In an effort to clear up some of the many things I’ve intended to write about during the past couple of weeks, I’m going to fire off a quick run-down of links and my quick thoughts.

Hiccups girl
This poor girl can’t get rid of the hiccups (old news story, I know). She pops about 50 times a minute and has been doing so for the past month. Long story short: She was going to appear on the Today show, and the folks at Good Morning America just couldn’t stand to be beat on this hard news story (he said with loads of sarcasm). So they called the girl’s house 57 times, slipped notes notes under her NYC hotel-room door and otherwise tormented her and her family. My point: Isn’t this what journalists hate about PR folks?

72 percent of PR people: stupid or lazy?
“Preliminary results from a Kent State University/BurellesLuce survey shows that 72 percent of PR professionals do not have a formal system for monitoring the blogosphere. Only 19 percent say they do monitor blogs…” The survey was of “938 clients and prospects of BurrellesLuce, the media monitoring and analysis company.” Do these people know that Topix.net, Technorati and Google Blog Search are free? And that drunken monkeys could use them?

FakeYourSpace: If you want it, kill yourself
I’m not making this up. “FakeYourSpace is an exciting new service that enables normal everyday people like me and you to have Hot friends on popular social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. Not only will you be able to see these Gorgeous friends on your friends list, but FakeYourSpace enables you to create customized messages and comments for our Models to leave you on your comment wall. FakeYourSpace makes it easy for any regular person to make it seem like they have a Model for a friend.”

“… Our basic plan starts at only $.99 This will give you 2 messages per week for 4 weeks. So for only $.99 you will receive 8 messages that will be there forever, not to mention our Models picture which will show up on your friends list. A pretty small price to pay for online popularity don’t you think?” This is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. If this honestly appeals to you, you have two option: 1) please turn 14 years old — your birthday’s coming up, right? Or 2) shoot yourself in the mouth.

Greatest parody ever: Truth in Ad Sales
For anyone in advertising, marketing, PR — or anyone anywhere with any sense of humor — this is a must-see. It’s priceless. My favorite part: The exec who wakes up in the middle of the pitch meeting and tries to sound involved by stammering buzzwords: “Uh…mobile!…online!”

Newspaper scared of facts
The Raleigh News & Observer recently ran a description of rape suspect that included all sorts of details but omitted any mention of race. Isn’t that a little more significant than whether or not he was wearing a do-rag, which, mind you, is a little more removable than skin pigment? “I don’t think in this community the description of someone as black or white is as meaningful as it once was,” according to the paper’s managing editor. What other descriptive qualities are soon to become no longer “meaningful,” Mr. Editor? “The suspect is a person. In a do-rag. He or she committed a crime of an unspecified nature. If you see him or her, please let us know.”

A commentator from the Poynter Institute, a journalism think-tank-thingy, says: “All Irish-Americans don’t look alike. Why then, accept a description that says a suspect was African-American?” Well, for starters, some people will say “African-American” is a stupid phrase to use in many of the contexts in which it’s used these days; it’s lost any specific meaning. Second, if you have a problem with “African-American,” fine. Tell me the suspect’s skin is brown, tan, light brown, green, magenta, whatever. You’d tell me what color his hair and eyes are, right? What’s the difference?

Tags: blogging, journalism, monitoring, new media, parody, public relations //