PR Watch, Second Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 2

Download PR Watch, Second Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 2

Flack Attack

Half a century ago George Orwell wrote 1984, a novel that depicts a world in which everyone has a television set in their room--a TV that watches you as you watch it, with government agents standing by to make sure you keep watching and responding in approved ways. According to Spy TV, Orwell's dystopic vision may not be far off.

Spy TV: Just Who is the Digital TV Revolution Overthrowing?

by David Burke

The chances are you spend one quarter of your waking life in front of a TV set, perhaps saying, "it's like having someone in the room." Meanwhile, because of television, you have fewer conversations, and fewer people know you intimately.

A Dumbed-Down Version of the Internet

by David Burke.

Boob Tube Babies: How I-TV Reinvents "Fun" for Children

by Deirdre Devers

Interactive television has been sold as opening up a new world to children. When people said the same of the internet, the meaning of the phrase was simple--the bodies who own the airwaves lost control of a medium that let everyone have their say. Large amounts of information and communication became freely available from, and moves between, ordinary people from all over. And the world which was opened up was not new or virtual at all. It was our own.

Fired Fox-TV Journalists Win Goldman Environmental Prize

Former Fox-TV reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson have received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for environmental activists.

PR Watch Website Launches "Spin of the Day"

by Sheldon Rampton

The PR Watch website has added a new feature called "Spin of the Day," which will post brief summaries of current public relations campaigns, with links to websites and print publications that offer further details.

As traffic to our website has increased, we have begun receiving frequent news tips from activists, PR industry insiders and members of the general public. The purpose of Spin of the Day is to pass this information on to journalists and others interested in tracking the often-hidden influence that public relations exerts on the news and public opinion.

WPP: World Propaganda Power

by Sharon Beder and Richard Gosden

For the past 15 years, the disparate international tribes of ad men and PR consultants have been quietly consolidating their power by forging giant conglomerates. The two biggest, WPP and Omnicom, were founded within a year of each other in the mid-1980s. Together they now manage the hearts and minds of global populations for their transnational corporate clients.

Craig Shirley Does the Disabled

by Marta Russell

Conservative PR man Craig Shirley recently created a front group called Disabled Americans for Death Tax Repeal (DADTR), which ran full-page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times, urging Congress to abolish the federal estate tax.