Slashdot Mirror
Bloggers create Press Plagiarist Of The Year Award
mccalli writes "The BBC is reporting that certain bloggers, fed up of seeing their work just lifted by the mainstream press, have created The Press Plagiarist Of The Year award. Examples are given of national newspapers simply cutting and pasting entire articles from web sites and passing them off as their own."
As a journalist I have a little inside information for you: sometimes this happens and it's not plagiarism. Let me explain the logic:
The author of the press release has no problem with you copying his or her material. In fact, he or she would prefer it. Press releases are worded in the best possible terms for the company sending them out. So some journalists see no problem using that material. And this isn't plagiarism (technically) since the author of the press release understands and, indeed, hopes it will happen (OED definition of plagiarism: "the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another."). Sometimes journalists borrow certain descriptions because the authors, being authorities on the topic (or at least having access to authorities on the topic), know how to phrase things in the most accurate terms.
I, as well as most journalists, don't do this and, in fact, look down on it. But some see no problem with it. And technically it's not plagiarism.
And also, most good journalists, if they do this, will append the statement with "according to the company's press release" which I consider to be an acceptable practice if used sparingly with subjects, such as scientific terminology, that can lose meaning in the translation from the press release to the journalist's writing.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought you'd be interested.