Media outlets or organizations play a significant role in providing information and keeping people updated with relevant changes, whether in cryptocurrency or traditional space. While these organizations are considered powerful tools for disseminating information to a global or selected audience, there’s a serious need to substantiate every media output, if possible.
In this era, media outlets and social platforms have become critical to the extent that many people rely on publications to shape their opinions and beliefs, even to make financial decisions. However, the sad reality is that not every piece of information provided by these entities is accurate and unbiased. In some cases, the information is misleading and altered by brands by influencing journalists.
How scam players are misusing journalism
Scammers and businesses with malicious intentions are now trying to hide under the shades of authoritative and trusted media organizations to promote their products and services. Instead of following the appropriate channels, they prefer to contact individual journalists at established organizations with offers to promote or secretly write about their service as news, rather than paid or promotional content marked clearly and distinctly as required.
One of the reasons is because news content is generally perceived as being authentic, unbiased, and trustworthy. Hence, scammers try to connive with media journalists to plug in their sponsored content as pure news. This could leave the audiences vulnerable to scam ploys.
One organization guilty of this is EverSurf, which claims to be the most trusted Everscale Browser for DeFi and NFT. An official of EverSurf had insisted in a deal that Cryptopolitan publish a promotion material as organic content. EverSurf’s parent brand Everscale is an established player in the cryptocurrency industry, and such action is not expected of them.
Just like EverSurf, Worldpressrelease is also one organization that is involved in this act. This tactic seems quite common in the cryptocurrency space and, perhaps, one of the major reasons retail investors end up with worthless tokens, NFTs, etc., eventually losing their investment.
How can it be stopped?
It starts with awareness. Unfortunately, not every organization is aware of this act by scammers and brands with no integrity, and some journalists fell for it by greed. Media companies should establish an editorial policy against such illicit acts and ensure that the journalists and staff remain compliant. While it’s not always expected for a media to have 100% clean journalists, it’s still expected from the media to act wisely when such behavior is caught. The journalist should be suspended or pruned from the team, as it depicts bad work ethics.
It’s very important that media organizations should establish a screening board to supervise and examine publications thoroughly. This can save the company’s reputation and ensure audiences get the most accurate and unbiased information possible.
Conclusion
Now that there is constant access to media outlets, people need to pay serious attention to the information they consume. Some media publications have the potential to manipulate and mislead. Thus, it’s more important than ever that we are aware of the agendas and biases that may be at play. In a time when “fake news” is a real concern, it’s also necessary to support media outlets committed to accuracy and fairness.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/brands-bribing-journalists-for-exposure/