we are big fans of fark, the website, but we're not so crazy about the reason that it exists. which brings us to an explanation of the corporation-traditional media food chain. (we'll discuss the government-traditional media food chain, the celebrity-traditional media food chain, and web 2.0 a bit later. having just come from a stint in 'the biz', we've got plenty to rant about.)
in the age of traditional media, if you're a pr person at a company, your job is to try to get said media interested in your company and its products/services. to do this, you send out press releases. well-written releases sound just like news and - in a time when traditional media is laying off as fast as it can print pink slips and the remaining journalists are wearing umpteen hats - the temptation to reprint press releases as if they were news is high, and increasing daily.
of course, it helps the medicine go down if you soft-sell your company or cause a bit. and if you can somehow associate your product or service with a current hot topic, no matter how remote that association is, and you're even closer to the prize. get a couple of 'experts' to support your cause - at least marginally - and you're practically guaranteed to get at least some media pickup.
and that, in a nutshell, is fark: not-news pretending to be news. and here's a fine example: watermelon has viagra-like effects. or how about the secret to a better golf game?