Punking the Mainstream Media
"You all got Punk'd" - so wrote Clare Werbeloff on Facebook the day after her now infamous fake witness account of a shooting in Kings Cross. Yes, the media were punked, and so were hundreds of thousands of Internet users who watched her video.
What is punking? The TV Series Punk'd, hosted by Aston Kutcher ran on the MTV network between 2003 and 2007. It was a similar format to Candid Camera, where practical jokes were played on unsuspecting victims, usually celebrities.
Adopting a similar theme, Clare Werbeloff added her own unique approach - she just made up an eyewitness account to a crime. It was so good that it was played over and over until she became an Internet star, complete with publicist. But its not the first time the media have been duped.
Recently, Irish Student Shane Fitzgerald changed the Wikepedia entry of the just deceased Music Composer Maurice Jarre. He added his own quote, "When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head", and attributed it to Jarre.
Sure enough, when writing their obituaries the media went straight to the Wikepeida site and copied the quote. It appeared in major newspapers all over the world. Only when Fitzgerald admitted his little test did the press know of the ruse. Fitzgerald had effectively punked the world's media.
Is this a sign of things to come? It seems like it could be. The media do so little checking that people like Werbeloff and Fitzgerald can get away quite easily with faking a news story. Werbeloff will certainly profit from this experience. Others might like some of that fame themselves.
The TV media are probably the easiest targets. They are always keen to get a bystander or neighbour's account of what happened. Its where we get those "he kept to himself but he always seemed like a nice quiet young boy" 15 second news grabs. It makes for great filler but its not always accurate. But when its just a quick quote, hey, what does it matter?
That's where punking will have its place. People will now be seeking out every press camera hoping to tell their story - real or not. But they may also try their luck with the print press. If they can create some short term fame, well, that's their 15mins. If it doesn't hamper a police investigation then I'm not sure there is a problem.
Keeping the media on their toes is all part of the game. If Ashton Kutcher can punk big time celebrities in the States, why cant we do it for two bit news reporters in Australia? Go get em kids.
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1 comments
Totally agree youngandgrumpy - but this is not new. I was also involved in a media stunt "punking" as it would now be called, back in the early 1990's at a time when the the Riverland / Sunraysia region was in the grips of a serious locust plague.
Our local horticulture industry group prepared a tongue-in-cheek submission to the Minister for Agriculture in South Australia seeking a development grant to process locusts into snacks. The resultant media storm generated media inquiries from as far as France and Hong Kong. We even had a photographer visit from an Asian international magazine whom we took out on a real locust hunt with my Pajero rigged with a giant locust net on the roof-rack. The story ran for three months before the Adelaide Advertiser realised the media was being conned or "punked" according to the current vernacular!
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