1. MEDIA TRANSPARENCY AND DEFENSE Paid articles phenomena (To buy or not to buy) Marius Alekna, Lithuanian MOND PRD, 2010 December, Tbilisi GE

2. Transparency = ?  Straight speaking  Openness  Honesty  Morality  Ethics  Civil society  Democracy  etc.

3. Transparency  Before requiring transparency from the media ask your self if you are transparent enough  If transparency starts in government, continues and varies in the media it finally settles down in society

4. Transparency  Values and principles differs Profit and Non profit Profit and Non profit Moral and Public interest Moral and Public interest Variety and Uniformity Variety and Uniformity …If supply exists, demand will always find its niche

5. Paid articles phenomena  It appears when: Media changes its owner, philosophy, strategy or profile; Media changes its owner, philosophy, strategy or profile; Changes in government occurs; Changes in government occurs; Pure “political” behaviour finds its way in governmental environment Pure “political” behaviour finds its way in governmental environment “Old” traditions continues;“Old” traditions continues; Lack of knowledge or pure communication capabilities comes upLack of knowledge or pure communication capabilities comes up

6. Paid articles phenomena Media sales manager proposals, search for the ways of “cooperation” Media’s inquiry Critical articles Products of “cooperation” Good life so far Mistrust Short term results Possibly negative attitude Second proposal Media’s inquiry If positive If negative If positive If negative Critical articles Such is life Freedom Transparency Trust Fair journalism Again

7. Paid articles  Can negatively affect your PR  Can ruin your good image and destroy your reputation  Short term benefits orientation can affect your long term goals, tasks or even values  If media doesn't show any interest to your information without “payment”, maybe something is wrong with information you deliver?

8. Paid articles  Media will never disseminate “good” and “positive” info for free  “Good” article procurement can be stimulated with a “bad” article, resonance or criticism  If one media is paid for “good” information, the rest of media will want the same  If you pay for the article, perhaps your soul isn't so pure, and, maybe, your “good” information isn't so good at all  Good and normal relations with society gradually vanish (in normal conditions your success stories are disseminated for free)  Don’t forget that anything you do, you do it using public financial sources (it can always be a target for criticism)  Information users usually sees it as something unreliable If you still keep doing that, then:

9. Paid articles  Your information can be equate to propaganda (the result can be extremely negative)  You can fool TV viewer or newspaper reader just once (second time to attract his attention or to win his sympathies will be almost impossible)  Educated society identifies paid articles easily = no effect  Vital stereotype: semiofficial = unfairness = political advertisement or etc.  Paid articles are full of panegyric, technical information, one- sidedness, absence of intrigue, interest, newness or topicality;  Partiality dominates, article style contradicts to traditional media format; “Leads” are shaped unprofessionally;  Apparent lack of information sources; opposition approach isn't presented  Ordinary detail is presented as a something new (pseudo values) If you still keep doing that, then:

10. Paid articles Lithuanian statistics  Respondents (mostly businessmen) were asked about how they understand corruption in mass media. As the answer, paid articles and paid shows were indicated by 44% of respondents  Paid articles were accepted positively among 18% of respondents, while 40% of them perceived this negatively.  Around 24% of respondents said that it is extremely easy to identify hidden paid article, while 40% said that it is just easy Source: Transparency International Lithuania; Verslo žinios, 2007

11. Paid articles Temptation still exists  Various statistics shows that a chance for a politician to be re-elected is directly proportional to the number of appearances or references in the media, no matter in a positive or negative context

12. How we did that

13. How they reacted

14. It wasn’t very popular, but…

15. Questions