Free ad for Nextel

Analysis:

Large private businesses, corporations, and even non-profit organizations employ thousands of public relations personnel for disseminating information about company policy, news, and products to the public with the primary goal of maintaining a positive public image. One of the most common and effective tools used by these professionals is the Video News Release (VNR). Television and print news media receive dozens of these VNR’s per week, sometimes per day, often using the footage, pictures and/or quotes to supplement their stories.

This particular story aired by WXMI FOX 17 is a textbook example of how not to serve the public interest when using VNR’s. The piece, running exactly 60 seconds without the anchor’s tag at the end, is a news release advertising a new feature available on new cell phones (Nextel was the name mentioned in the story). It features a young couple with a small child using this wonderful new technology to stay in touch while the husband is away at work. This family is non-regional, thus viewers often assume that they are locals. The anchor for the local news is the voice over for the piece, a common feature in VNR’s since they are often sent out without sound tracks for the parts where a reporter is supposed to speak, making it easy to overdub the voice later.

Whenever presented with a story that prominently features a business, corporation, or product, audiences need to ask questions while they are watching to determine if it is a VNR. Pay attention to the footage in the story; are you to believe Mr. Hill had a local camera crew in his hotel with him “thousands of miles” from home just to capture his expression when he hears his daughter’s voice? What purpose does the story serve besides advertising a product? Why would a news station run a pre-packaged VNR instead of producing their own news segment?

Story:

WXMI Newsreader – It’s a new feature that allows a voice message to be sent from a mobile phone directly to a computer. Here’s how it works; you just hit a special button on the phone, say whatever you’re going to say, then type in an email address. It keeps Brian Hill close to his family, even when he’s thousands of miles away from home on business.

Brian Hill – I do travel frequently across time zones, and so to have an option where they can leave voice messages for me that doesn’t cost a lot is a wonderful thing and it just helps me stay connected to home, just to hear their voices, to hear “I love you.”

Newsreader – For the Hill family, this special feature has other applications.

Mrs. Hill – Sometimes, even if he’s at work and I just need him to pick something up from the store on the way home, I can just click my button, leave him a message to bring something home, and then I don’t have to disturb him at work and make him answer the phone.

Newsreader – Even if they’re just down the street from each other, of on the other side of the globe. Nextel and other wireless companies offer the service for about $10 a month.

Time: 1:05