Churnalism exposed

'Churnalism' - the practice of churning out news articles cut and pasted from press releases with little if any fact checking and corroboration - is exposed in a new website launched this month, churnalism.com. The site is related to the charity the Media Standards Trust. The founders of the site announced its launch by releasing fake stories and observing how the press reported them - read today's Guardian article for more information with a great podcast explaining the idea.

Corporations tackle activism from the inside

Today, the Guardian accuses 'Big business [of] spying on green activists' as large energy corporations are revealed to be paying agents to infiltrate UK activist groups and feed back valuable information. This 'alternative' approach to issues management will anger activists further. Take a look at the comments at the end for a debate on whether companies that have 'green' credentials are perceived as green as they'd like to be.

Creativity podcast

For those of you struggling with developing truly new, original ideas for coursework and tutorials, here's a podcast from PR Week that's specific to PR. There's also an accompanying article where a few different techniques are tested by some genuine PR types. I'm glad to say most of it mirrors what I've been saying in tutorials!! i.e. get out there, watch out for PR you like, use other sources such as museum exhibitions, cinema, interesting webpages...and put it all together with your brand to create some new ideas. Also note their reference to 'black hatting' other people's ideas - they're talking about the 6 hats technique.

Looking for a job? Beware...

Last Tuesday a BBC expose focused on Modus Publicity, fashion PR agency, and their policy of employing up to 20 interns at a time - and paying them nothing. In an industry where work experience is vital and competition for jobs is tough, beware PR firms who seek mainly to take advantage of graduates desperate for jobs. See this PR Week article for more...