Monday, March 28, 2011

Principle of Journalism: Keep Mickey Mouse Happy?

THERE'S A NEW SHOW launching on ABC this week and it sort of takes place in Philadelphia.

While Body of Proof is filmed in Rhode Island, it is a Philadelphia tale. They show Philly skyline shots and scene-setters but the location filming is actually done in Providence.

6ABC did a full news story on the new program, even sending a reporter to Providence to interview the show's stars.

Is it a news story that Philadelphia is sort of the setting for a new show? Or is this just promotion for their parent company, Disney?

7 comments:

Sarah D'Agostino said...

I can't help but feel as though this is simply a promotion for Disney. It could fall under the newsworthiness criteria "human interest," but there must be more pressing issues than a show based on our city of brotherly love.

"Always Sunny" is better anyways.

Richard Molinaro said...

Of course it is a promotion for Disney. Did CBS or NBC local news do a report on the show? The fact that the show is in 'Philadelphia" is a perfect excuse to give it coverage. They can make it like 'Rocky' and represent the city but it is nothing more then a promotion. It's like when ABC sends a local reporter to cover Dancing With the Stars, it rarely has a Philly connection, they just want to plug their primetime network. The show being in 'Philly", as they try to portray, just gives them a great excuse to give it coverage and ultimately poromote it.

Geo said...

Is it wrong to promote the show on the news?

- George
(the teacher who watched part of the show and was really annoyed by the scenes of Providence)

Sarah Mariano said...

No matter what happens down the line, in some way it has to do with Disney. They own ABC, so why not add in a little something extra to boost Disney's status?

Afshan Ali said...

Yes it's wrong to promote the show on the Philadelphia News. If the show were truly about Philly, it would have been filmed here, not just use generic skyline shots.

Also, back to what news is all about, promoting a TV show (that will most likely not last that long) is not worthy of a time slot on the news, especially since it has barely any relevance to the people of Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Offner said...

What a great promotion for Disney.

It's nice that it's "supposed to" take place in Philadelphia. But if it were real news, it would actually be in Philadelphia. It would have some sort of impact on Philadelphians.

It was nice of 6ABC to do that... in Disney's name. Not Philadelphia's.

Anonymous said...

I believe that this is a combination of both. If the skyline of Philadelphia is shown throughout the series, it then becomes relevant to Philadelphians.