Pink-slime journalism

Pink-slime journalism is a practice in which news outlets, or fake partisan operations masquerading as such, publish poor-quality news reports that appear to be local news. Researchers and media credibility raters have observed pink-slime journalism being used to support both Republican Party and Democratic Party politicians or policies. The use of these websites to gather user data has also been observed. The reports are either computer-generated or written by poorly-paid outsourced writers, sometimes using pen names.

The term "pink-slime journalism" was coined by journalist Ryan Smith in 2012. A related term, "news mirage", was coined in 2024 by journalists Miranda Green and David Folkenflik to refer to websites that "look like news, but in truth [serve as] mouthpieces" for corporations or advocacy groups with a non-journalistic agenda.

Media watchdog organization Newsguard reported in June 2024 that the "number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S."

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.