ch629717@ohio.edu
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| Fake Grass | Source: Community Catalyst |
As one of the most hated players in the NFL during final
season of football, Albert Haynesworth responded to his “dislikes,” saying, “If
you’ve got haters, that means you’re doing something right.
Corporations such as Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s and mayoral
candidates agree.
Their agreement is so strong that they’re creating the
haters to hype up their business and drown out their detractors.
This hater-hack is called astroturfing: “when companies or
even individuals mask their motives by putting it under the guise of a
grassroots movement,” explains The Guardian.
Grassroots movements are powerful because they show the will
of the everyday citizen to organize and fight for change.
Per usual, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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| McDonald's paid crowds in Japan. | Source: Trend Hunter |
McDonald’s hired 1,000 part-time employees to stand in line
for hours in anticipation of its quarter-pounder release—the big crowds drawing
coveted attention for a cheeseburger.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s communications director created a
fake Twitter account to support the candidate’s policies.
To casual viewers, the long line by the drive-thru and a
Twitter citizen look like real people, genuinely hungry for a burger or
interested in politics.
But the line was bought by McDonald’s and the tweets were
crafted by a campaign manager.
This is astroturfing-- unethical deceit, according to the Public
Relations Society of America’s Ethics Code:
A member deceives the public by employing people to pose as
volunteers to speak at public hearings and participate in “grass roots”
campaigns.
Recently astroturfing has gotten a much greener upgrade:
The Guardian writes, "Technology
has been created to create “personas:” fake internet-personalities used to multiply
efforts of each astroturfer, creating the impression that there's major support
for what a corporation or government is trying to do—” in other words, they’re
amping up the hype.
Today’s Internet users must be savvy enough to disable cookies
and outsmart algorithms. Now we are wary of company-created “citizen-campaigns”
using state-of-the-art technology that’s being pursued by even the U.S.Air Force.
The Internet has been
recognized as something special in the fight for net neutrality, but how do we
protect the accessibility of the Internet while minimizing the ease of
deception online?
The PRSA states in its Ethics Code:
“We serve the public interest by acting as responsible
advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of
ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate.”
Where is the voice of responsibility and reason against
astroturfing? And can it drown out the noise of so many personas? I’m not so
sure.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,
but beware: the greenest grass probably isn’t real.
Wow! I was new to the term Astroturfing until this week. Of course, I knew these kinds of things occurred, I just did not know there was a term associated with it. And, the fact that McDonald's paid people to stand in line so their new burger looked popular? Just crazy. I realize I need to think twice when I see things like that happening!
ReplyDeleteSorry, i forgot to sign the post above under Trish: Trish Tierney (tt318700@ohio.edu).
ReplyDeleteI like the example given here is the McDonal's one and obviously sometimes the real example in an article could better help the readers understand the viewpoints the author want to express.
ReplyDeleteyichen Wei
yw130215@ohio.edu