Public Relation Writing - Assignment Example

‘Fake news’ items are deliberate hoax stories intended for public relations and may not necessarily be true or entirely true; they are meant to sway public opinions concerning certain individuals, businesses, products or firms, among others. For instance, an example of a news item that could pass for a fake news item is from the Washington post as reported on sixth of June 2013 concerning how Wells Fargo settled complaint on foreclosed homes (Douglas). This news article is clearly a ‘fake’ news article passed on through the newspaper as a PR stunt, to market the corporate to the public; the anticipated positive feedback from such a news item is good for business at the company.

This news item strikes as fake news because it is only reporting the positive deeds by Wells Fargo in terms of settling the allegations of foreclosed homes, while vindicating the company from any blame. Q.2 Newspapers often localize some of their news items to particular audiences in particular places such as cities and towns; the Washington post as published on sixth of June 2013 has various news items that have been localized to certain audiences. For instance, the Philadelphia story about the six people that were killed when a building that was being demolished collapsed on Wednesday is an example of a national story (Associated Press).

This particular news item is a national story that has been localized for people of Philadelphia because it directly concerns their state, and not any other in America. The news item begins with a headline that mentions the state of Philadelphia, then presenting the news; this tagging of news indicates that the news concerns Philadelphia in particular. The news mentions the families of the six victims that perished in the building that collapsed and efforts made to reach them in consolation for the loss of their loved ones. Q.3 The Washington post as published on sixth of June 2013 reports of the use of social media by the National Security Agency to collect secret information from around the world.

The National Security Agency gathers information from social sites and service providers such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, PalTalk, Skype, YouTube and Apple, among others (Gellman). The use of social media is an effective way of gathering information that is vital for maintaining national security, and according to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the information collected is the most valuable and important foreign intelligence. Q.4 Hard news stories in newspapers are mostly about topics such as politics, business and international news; however, some heavily reported news stories about what can be considered soft subject matter such as entertainment can be considered hard news.

In this regard, the seriousness of the story reported in newspapers may determine whether it can be considered hard or soft news; from the Washington post as published on sixth of June 2013, there are various hard news stories. For instance, what can be considered as a hard news story is the story about Romney mixing business and politics in his tour to the Park City during the Uttah conference (Horowitz). The news story provides details of Romney’s interactions with John Schoenfeld who spent time assessing investments of Solamere Capital, a company co-founded by Romney’