Churnalism?

9th Mar

I have noticed 72Point's sister company OnePoll on the Churnalism.com website a few times recently.

Here's one example:

churnalism-onepoll-yeah-but My concern is that the Churnalism website implies newspaper journalists are ripping off press releases and using them word for word – without checking facts or doing any actual reporting.

This is no doubt the case in some instances – but what the website doesn’t do is check the source of the news articles it claims have been copied straight from "press releases".

With this in mind, we contacted Martin Moore, Director of The Media Standards Trust, who set up the site.

The point we put across in our conversation, which was accepted by him as a valid point, is that there is a considerable difference between newspaper journalists copying and pasting press releases received by emails from unknown PRs – and newspaper journalists using page-ready news copy they have received from well-established news agencies.

We explained that ALL OnePoll branded stories are not written and sent as "press releases" - they are written by news agency journalists and distributed direct to national news desks via the SWNS newswire.

Following this conversation with The Media Standards Trust, we came to realise that they, and the Churnalism site, have very little knowledge of how news agencies in the UK work - and were seemingly unaware that these agencies provide factually accurate, rigorously checked news copy which needs little or no subbing. And they've been doing this for decades.

The point was made to us, by them – and it holds some value - that news publications themselves should therefore source where they receive their information / news from. But clearly this is completely out of any PR or news agency’s control.

And if ‘churnalism’ – as the Churnalism website maintains, is the practice of newspapers copying and pasting from “press releases”, then the practice of newspapers using “news copy” which has been written and filed by reputable and respected press agencies such as PA, Reuters, AP and SWNS - who check and double check facts before filing any stories- and have been providing this service to news publications for an age – is in fact a million miles from that.

And if this practice is “churnalism” - then it is certainly no new phenomenon - and I cannot see what the website expects to achieve, because with the rapid decline of newspaper staff and the cuts the industry faces as a whole – news publications are only going to look more to agencies to supply them with cost-effective, page-ready news.

Written by Harriet Crosse

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Martin Moore
March 9th, 2011 - 17:13

Hi there (Oli?),
Helpful post - and it’s been very good to engage with you in a dialogue about churnalism.
A few things it’s important to clarify.
I still have a number of issues about your distinction between OnePoll ‘press releases’ vs news agency copy based on OnePoll surveys:
- The copy is published on the OnePoll site under the title ‘Press Release title’ and you refer to them as ‘press releases’ at the top
- Nowhere (that I can find) on the OnePoll site does it indicate that OnePoll is owned by South West News Group, which also owns a news agency that writes up the surveys as ‘news’. Though the copy you have recently added to the top of the press release archive is helpful
- From the perspective of the public, whether the surveys are written up by professional journalists as ‘wire copy’, or by people in professional communications as ‘press releases’, it is as important to trace the news story back to source. In most of the OnePoll cases referenced, the source appears to be a commercial organisation that has commissioned the poll in order - at least partly - to promote a product or service they are trying to sell. This, to me, makes greater transparency even more important.
- We have been working closely with news agencies, particularly the Associated Press, for over two years now and have a good idea of how news agencies work. We did not know about One Poll / South West News but now do thanks to the dialogue we have had in the past couple of weeks. Though I’d be very surprised if many members of the public knew about how One Poll / South West News works.
Happy to chat more about how to make your releases more transparent if you think that would be helpful. Contact details on our site.
Best, Martin
Harriet Crosse
March 9th, 2011 - 17:40

Hi Martin - thanks for you response.

I can see why the word “press releases” on the OnePoll website is confusing - I will ensure this is changed to “press copy” - because essentially, that is what it is.

Following your conversation with Oli - we added to the press archive page the following text: “All press releases on the OnePoll press archive page have been written by trained news journalists and have been issued via the SWNS newswire. They have featured in national newspapers prior to press-copy being uploaded to the press archive section.”

Our new website which goes live next week states clearly that OnePoll is owned by the SWNS Group - it also clearly states that is the case on our Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnePoll

Our news copy is ALWAYS transparent in that we explain why the survey was carried out, who it was commissioned by and how many responses there were. We also add three or four paragraphs of quotes from the commissioners of the survey - as is standard practice for news copy.

What is printed in newspapers and online as a result of our copy is sadly out of our control.

Thanks again for getting in touch - and any other questions / suggestions - feel free to contact me directly.

Harriet