Phone-in scandal: a media frenzy?

Today's front pages are littered with articles about GMTV's latest phone-in scandal, investigation and the recent findings. For a day time TV show that previously held a high reputation of itself among it's audience, it's not looking too good for them, as recent evidence proves the popular show can be linked to fraudulent activities associated with phone-in competitions. However, it's not just GMTV under investigation. Since the phone-in scandal was discovered a few months ago, various other popular TV shows-including Blue Peter-have been accused of dishonesty to their viewers when holding phone-in competitions.

Amidst all of the coverage in the newspapers of recent, there is a programme on the so-called 'scandal' being advertised on the BBC, in which phone-in competitions are portrayed to be fraudulent, misleading and untrustworthy. Is this just another example of the media making something out of nothing by multiplying it by 10 to make it newsworthy?

GMTV released a statement today claiming they had no involvement in such activities; all of their phone-in competitions take place through a strict role of conduct basis. They also claim that the phone-in competitions are operated by another company who is responsible for deciding on winners and the phone-in charges. So how is it that the papers just point the blame directly to GMTV and the company actually responsible for this scandal goes unscathed?

The reputation of GMTV and Blue Peter has been damaged to a severe extent already, despite there being no conclusion from the investigation. Viewers of both shows put their trust into the programmes when participating in competitions. For the loyal fans of both shows, this media frenzy may have affected their decision to participate in future competitions, as well as affecting the viewing stats.

Until OFCOM finish with their investigations, there is no way of knowing whether the media hype is justified. If however GMTV is found not guilty of the scandal, the media will be responsible for ruining a well established and highly regarded reputation which has been built up over decades.