Earlier this week, we noticed an interesting alignment of the stars in Vancouver’s blogosphere. Over at the font-challenged Vancity Buzz website, one of its hard-nosed reporters named “Vancity Buzz Staff” wrote a “news” story called “Debunking falsehoods, misinformation: 10 reasons to support the Vancouver Aquarium.” This was followed by a series of tweets to bolster the hashtag #ISupportVanAqua.
So what kind of interviews or research did “Vancity Buzz Staff” do in order to wade into the heated and complex debate surrounding the aquarium over keeping whales in captivity? Essentially they reprinted a press release that the aquarium posted on its own website. Then on Tuesday, writer Trevor Dueck penned an op-ed piece titled “Protesting the Vancouver Aquarium is Hinged Upon a Misguided Whale Tale.” Talk about synergy!
Over at the eternally positive Vancouver is Awesome website, it was much the same thing with a video post from the Vancouver Aquarium and the headline “Here’s a message from the Vancouver Aquarium that you need to see. #ISupportVanAqua.” VIA then proceeded to tweet said hashtag no fewer than three times in one day to its nearly 47,000 followers.
All of which is fine and dandy if a blogger wants to share with readers his or her opinions, hiking photos, love for the Samsung Galaxy, or joyous experiences living in the Olympic Village thanks to a condo and salary provided by the realtor behind the Olympic Village. And we acknowledge that the aquarium does many worthwhile things in areas of research, rescue, education and rehabilitation. But the cynical part of us naturally wonders how the aquarium got its press release and hashtag to be promoted in lockstep fashion by these high-traffic blogs. Rather than, say, talking to journalists who might take a more nuanced approach to the story with more than one side of the debate explored. At the very least, it looks like a well-coordinated PR campaign on the part of the aquarium — which neither Vancity Buzz nor Vancouver is Awesome are particularly upfront about.
