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Press Coverage of Reality Shows |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Press Coverage of Reality Shows
This article appears on another forum, and was written by a former Apprentice candidate.
It puts all those Press and Media stories - you know, "an insider said....." into perspective: Quote PRESS AND MEDIA I'm loving this show! Where can I find out more about the candidates? You could try the BBC's You're Fired programme; any websites the candidates have created, or fan sites about them; newspaper or magazine articles; or this forum's 'spoiler' thread or 'online and newspaper articles' thread, which usually give pointers to some of the aforementioned sources. Is there a lot of press coverage of the show? Yes. If you've missed the show on Wednesday, it's usually hard to avoid finding out who was fired if you read any newspaper on a Thursday. The Sunday papers often include articles of (allegedly) general interest about the candidates. And if you find any interesting articles in glossy magazines, please mention them to us on this forum. I read a newspaper article and it included names of candidates who are in future tasks -- now I know they won't get fired this week! Sigh. Too many journalists are more concerned about making a quick buck than about the people who actually watch the show. At least they've stopped giving away who WILL be fired this week, unlike in the first series when, on the weekend before the broadcast of episode 10 (5 candidates left), the Sunday Times printed a photograph of the final four! You can write to the papers and complain ... or just follow the online versions of press articles through this forum, where articles with spoilers will usually be tagged. So how reliable is what we read in the newspapers and magazines? The short answer is: not very reliable. Not only because they don't always check their facts (such as the Daily Star which described Mona and Noorul as "two women from ethnic minorities"!) but also because they don't seem to care. Anecdotally, newspapers are less reliable than magazines, possibly because of time pressures, and tabloids/gossip magazines are (much) less reliable than broadsheets & other magazines. The article below was written by Simon Smith, a candidate from Series 4. It's an excellent guide to assessing the reliability of press articles. -- During my four weeks in The Apprentice last year, I was the subject of 18 tabloid/gossip mag stories. 13 were total and complete fabrication and were untrue (And I threatened legal action over one of them) 4 had an element of truth to them, but were then spoiled by an untrue and unnecessary embellishment 1 was true. (The one that I did myself and had copy approval over) Everything that you read about any of the candidates, good, or bad - Take with a pinch of salt. The morning after I was fired I was doing my press junkets and saw a slot for The Daily Star. I point-blank refused to talk to them until Taylor Herring promised me that they would print a full retraction for the story that they'd made up with the help of a photograph that they'd ripped from someone elses Facebook page. Once the retraction was agreed, I gave the interview. It was never printed and the Daily Star claimed that an error had been made and the retraction had been 'subbed out' This was an outright lie and I told Taylor Herring I knew as much, but the bottom line is that they don't really care as long as the show is getting in the papers. Jame and the girls at Taylor Herring were brilliant to me - They got me a deal with a Sunday Paper to do a one-time only version of my story, and got me copy-approval over the content too, but I generally don't trust media types as far as I could throw them anymore and have refused every single media offer since. Once you court the press (and you do if you agree to be an Apprentice Candidate) you're up on offer. I'm fully aware that even now if I had a small accident in the car and accidently hit some wildlife on the way home, it could still be run as "FORMER SOLDIER APPRENTICE GOES ON MAD ROAD RAGE BADGER KILLING SPREE" I signed up for it and unfortunately, it now goes with the territory. A little trick to observe to see if tabloid stories to telling the truth test are nailed-on, attributable quotes. Anything that contains "An insider revealed..." or "Our source said..." are more than likely going to be an absolute pile of made up cack by some junior journalist, or sub-editor. Unquote Insightful!! JJ |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Dec 2008
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Interesting read jj
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#3 |
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Join Date: Sep 2007
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Interesting, and would just seem to confirm all that most of us believe about the media - particularly tabloids, most of which budget for being sued; controversial/sensationalist stories sell so many more papers, they can afford to pay compensation and still make huge profits.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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The other side of the story is that many stories bearing the tag "a source close to said" or similar actually come from the celeb or his or her paid PR! Let's face it, more than one posting on this thread said the Sunday Mirror story about the VSK triangle was a load of **** made up by the paper - it was, as usual, substantially true.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
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Quote:
The other side of the story is that many stories bearing the tag "a source close to said" or similar actually come from the celeb or his or her paid PR! Let's face it, more than one posting on this thread said the Sunday Mirror story about the VSK triangle was a load of **** made up by the paper - it was, as usual, substantially true.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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Not sure Kate is the greatest example for your case given her hubbie's credentials for media manipulation!!
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#7 |
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Away with the faries
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I stopped buying newspapers around the time Radio Five was launched in 1994.
I was driving a lot with my job and would listen to R5 and quite often some of the people who were involved in the articles in the papers would be interviewed - and that was when my eyes were really opened about just how much rubbish was written. I always knew that tabloids exaggerated things but I hadn't realised to what extent until then. If I want to read the news I do it online now - I wouldn't waste my money on a newspaper. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: London - Gerbilophobe!
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Quote:
Not sure Kate is the greatest example for your case given her hubbie's credentials for media manipulation!!
![]() Of course, the title of her newest TV project is called " The Biggest Loser" JJ
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