Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 66 posts

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#11

Post by illuminate »

mseebach wrote: post #6

Aren't good PR people supposed to "sell" their story directly to a "journalist", without an intermediate publicly available press release? Will this tool find those? Also, there's a certain irony in that this story itself almost certainly is "planted" PR.

"Aren't good PR people supposed to "sell" their story directly to a "journalist", without an intermediate publicly available press release?"

That would require that the "journalist" pay attention and not just directly look through their pile of releases for a "story". News departments are lazy and don't want to pay for real news, they want it spoon-fed.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#14

Post by jcarbaugh »

notimetorelax wrote: post #10
hythloday wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go: http://churnalism.sunlightfoundation.com/downloads/

Does it analyse every page I visit? I would prefer if it was activated by a button press only when I need it.

It runs automatically, but only on a whitelist of sites. You can edit the list in the extension settings.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#15

Post by Samuel_Michon »

zapdrive wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the fake web browser and IQ study (which claimed IE users are dumb). Basically every media house just copy pasted the press release. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Quotient_(IQ)_and_...

Since then, has there been a real study into the relation between intelligence and browser choice? I suspect the hoax report largely was picked up by IT sites and mainstream press because the conclusion sounded plausible to them (IE users = not smrt).

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#16

Post by untog »

mseebach wrote: post #6

Aren't good PR people supposed to "sell" their story directly to a "journalist", without an intermediate publicly available press release? Will this tool find those? Also, there's a certain irony in that this story itself almost certainly is "planted" PR.

Also, there's a certain irony in that this story itself almost certainly is "planted" PR.

Well, the Sunlight Foundation is a non-profit organisation, so it's certainly not quite the same as the article is describing.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#17

Post by jkldotio »

DanBC wrote: post #9
obviouslygreen wrote: post #5

It may seem like a minor nitpick, but the main Churnalism site[1] touts the byline "Discover the journalism you can trust and what you should question." The purpose of this tool is definitely a step in the right direction, but just because a given piece probably isn't a recycled press release doesn't mean you should stop looking at it with a healthy dose of skepticism. [1] http://churnalism.sunlightfoundation.com/

Sometimes the press release is more accurate. There have been examples in the UK when something released by the Office for National Statistics[1] is looked at and interpreted by a journalist. Unfortunately statisticians get the numbers right and journalists don't, and so reporters make very dramatic statements that just aren't supported by the numbers. [1] ( http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html )

Which is why I include statistics.gov.uk in my UK section of http://jkl.io/ I think we can get around more than just churnalism if people have direct access to academic, state, NGO and partisan materials without journalistic intermediaries. It's niche, in that not everyone is going to read such a site, but important I think.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#18

Post by notimetorelax »

jcarbaugh wrote: post #14
notimetorelax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it analyse every page I visit? I would prefer if it was activated by a button press only when I need it.

It runs automatically, but only on a whitelist of sites. You can edit the list in the extension settings.

Thanks, good to know.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#19

Post by runjake »

Great application. And as always, a healthy dose of skepticism is good.

The two questions I always ask myself when reading something or listening to someone is "Why are they telling me this? What is their motive by telling me this?". I ask these questions whenever I listen to anyone, from the salesperson, to a journalist, to a politician, to my wife and kids.

Re: Is It Journalism, or Just a Repackaged Press Release? Here's a Tool to Help

#20

Post by mseebach »

illuminate wrote: post #11
mseebach wrote: post #6

Aren't good PR people supposed to "sell" their story directly to a "journalist", without an intermediate publicly available press release? Will this tool find those? Also, there's a certain irony in that this story itself almost certainly is "planted" PR.

"Aren't good PR people supposed to "sell" their story directly to a "journalist", without an intermediate publicly available press release?" That would require that the "journalist" pay attention and not just directly look through their pile of releases for a "story". News departments are lazy and don't want to pay for real news, they want it spoon-fed.

It's spoon-feeding I'm describing. It's just targeted, one-to-one spoon feeding instead of spray-and-pray press releases.

It is way easier for a journalist to go to lunch, accept flattery for his sharp style and leadership in his field, and then walk home and copy-paste the text handed to him, than sift through the same pile of press releases that every other journalist in the industry is also sifting through.

Post reply on HN