The Wire

The world of print journalism has been awash with press releases for many years.On a slow news day or under tight deadline pressure, many a newspaper journalist has let their integrity slide and published a straight PR piece.As news budgets shrink, the problem’s likely to get worse, particularly with the rise of the multimedia press release.They are known as audio and video news releases. And broadband internet has meant PR and advertising companies can now distribute them globally in a matter of seconds.In the US, these fake news stories are often picked up by small radio and TV networks and run without any indication as to their origin.It’s yet to go that far in Australia, but several local companies are in the business of producing similar content.Medialink Productions is one of those companies.Its General Manager, Dean Allen-Craig, spoke with The Wire’s Andrew Green about how the differences between the Australian and US media markets.