Fake Grass Episode Five

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In this episode, I ask the question- who benefits from astroturfing, and use an astroturfing example to show how it (almost) was effective in instigating political change.

I took inspiration from Natasha getting her 'Letter to the Editor' published in The West Australian last Friday. This week, my videoblog features an astroturfing case study where a competitor to the DMG Radio conglomerate used a letter writing campaign to fake community opposition to the station. These letters were a mass production, not grassroots action like they had pretended to be.

What is interesting about this case, as explained by PR Professional Trevor Cook in this episode, is that this group were caught. While their actions sparked political inquiry into DMG's operations, it also exposed the fraudulent campaign, and it was not effective at achieving its goals.

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Media, Images and People used in Episode Five:

Yahoo Movie Recommendations: Retrieved 14 October 2006: http://movies.yahoo.com/recommendations.

Newspaper: The West Australian. 14 October 2006.

Website: DMG Radio Australia. (2006) Retrieved 14 October 2006: http://www.dmgradio.com.au/dmgLC.html.

Interview: Trevor Cook (2006). ‘Hack.’ (radio broadcast), Triple J [online] Retrieved 20 August 2006: www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/podcast.

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