Trendy in today’s digital media world is regurgitated press releases about corporate sponsorships. You’ve read the headlines – vendor A partners with brokerage B, and you’re supposed to feel something about said partnership. The only problem is that you don’t. You feel nothing, and then you wonder why you’re so cynical.
You’re not cynical, you’re just spotting lazy reporting. Some call it churnalism – where a press room gets a press release over email, they don’t vet or analyze, they just copy and paste it, sometimes moving the words around a little bit if they’re feeling fancy. It’s not just in the real estate industry, but in every industry.
Do you really care that BHGRE in Timbucktu chose Xerox as their copier brand for all 7 offices, or that Coldwell Banker in North Dakota just signed up for Twitter? Does it matter that a real estate brokerage chose a vendor, and does it matter that a vendor landed a client? Sure, but only to those two parties.
How you’re being tricked
You’re being tricked into thinking you’re cynical because you don’t care about this garbage, but the truth is that you have a pulse and a functioning brain, so what you’re really picking up on is laziness in a news room and a need for a reporter under the gun to produce content, whether it’s quality or not. Further, it is often vendors that are advertising on a digital news site that get the benefit of being copied/pasted without analysis or thought. Nice, right?
Here’s what you can do about it
So here’s what you do about it – next time you see a garbage headline touting some inane partnership, ask yourself if it moves the chains. Take for example a story about Raj Qsar, owner of The Boutique Real Estate Group who has long used aerial drones as part of his marketing package – he has inspired many to follow suit and improve their marketing. That moves the chains because it inspires greatness, it motivates readers to take action. Compare that to a story about the fictional Initech buying paper from the fictional Dunder-Mifflin, and you can see the difference.
Our promise and how to talk to the head honcho
Don’t reward bad journalism by giving any brain cells to it, which includes clicking, reading, and sharing. And by all means, please hold us here at The Real Daily to the same standard – if you see something here that isn’t up to your standards, email me directly (click the icon by my profile image above), or email my boss – we vow to not insult you with lazy crap journalism. Deal?
