Mis-reporting Press Conference

Analysis:

The channel 17 story is framed just as an attempt by the Writers Guild of America to also make money off of the use of product placement in TV shows and films. The newsreader says “Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it,” or later in the story it says “So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie.” This is completely misleading as to the intent of the Press Conference.

According to other news stories from that day, whether it was Yahoo news or the Guardian they all quoted someone from the Writers Guild of America. Here is what appeared in the Guardian “Major advertisers like Home Depot, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble are out of control,” said the WGA. “They’ll stop at nothing to insert their brand names into every TV plotline. These diabolical advertising fiends are turning our favorite TV shows into cheesy infomercials.” If you go to their website, you can read the entire Media Release, which is very clear as to their demand to have the FCC create a Code of Conduct around the use of product placement in TV programming and films. They are advocating for 4 basic principles: 1. Full and clear disclosure for both the visual and aural disclosure of product integration deals at the beginning of each program so the program’s audience knows ahead of time that it will be subject to hidden or stealth advertising; 2. Strict limits on the usage of product integration in children’s programming; 3. A voice for storytellers, actors, and directors, arrived at through collective bargaining, about how a product or brand is to be integrated into content; 4. Extension of all regulation of product integration to cable television, where some of the most egregious abuse is found. To top it all off they even issued a 9 page White paper on the problem of Product Placement called “Are you Selling Me?” Clearly the channel 17 story was completely devoid of what the Writers Guild of America actually said.

Story:

WXMI 17 News reader – Actors and writers in Hollywood say they are forced to pitch products all the time on TV and in movies and now they want to be paid for it. You’ve seen it, product integration and no apparently writers are being coached to write a specific brand of chips or soda into their scripts. So at a Press Conference yesterday they said they want a piece of the pie. The actors want a say in the products they’re hawking. TV companies are especially doing it to offset the impact of DVRs, which let viewers skip over all those big dollar commercials.