“News outlets have no choice I guess, if they’re playing in the social media and online platforms, but to provide that as one of the many sources of news.” -Dave Christison
In the age when an instagram post can appear on the evening news or a twitter comment can spark massive political debate, there is plenty of room for hoaxers game the system.
Dave Christison of Melbourne, Australia based media studio The Woolshed Co. spoke with ABC.net about the creation of 8 fake viral videos that have been viewed over 205 million times in 180 countries and have been picked up by news stations around the world. He had this to say about why the fake videos actually are newsworthy:
“It gets people that don’t believe it. They watch it again and again and again. They share it and share it with other people to create debate about whether its real or not and then that’s usually what attracts some level of newsworthiness to it.”
I don’t mind pranksters at all but that statement seems a bit grandiose. It does however expose just how gullible people can be, even those that work for so called “news stations.”
“There was nothing ever sinister or malicious behind this experiment. It was about exploring a new medium of entertainment and seeing where we could take it.”
This is the statement on The Woolshed Co. website explaining the motivation behind the series:
“The content series was envisioned as a social experiment to explore the creation and distribution of ‘new media’, with the process involving The Woolshed Co. strategising, creating, releasing and then integrating the learnings into the next piece.  We set out to better understand exactly how to create short-form, highly sharable, ‘snackable’ content, that is capable of reaching worldwide mass audiences without the luxury of pricey media buys, ad campaigns, publicity strategies or distribution deals”