User:Vanished user adhmfdfmykrdyr/Wikinews:Press releases

This is a draft of a potential essay.

What Wikinews articles are not

See Wikinews:What_Wikinews_is_not.

1. Wikinews articles are not press releases. There are a variety of press release aggregators who provide this service; check the Reference desk (or try News sources on Wikipedia) for links to some of them. Wikinews articles address the 5 Ws and H where possible, and attempt to present newsworthy articles which are balanced and have multiple sources, which press releases by definition do not.
2. Wikinews articles are not source documents. Our sister project Wikisource is a repository for static documents; articles on Wikinews can and should be edited ruthlessly which would be inappropriate treatment for a source document. Also, many news-related source documents are copyrighted — verbatim copying of a source document could not reasonably be considered "fair use".
3. Wikinews articles are not advertisements. Especially, they are not political advertisements. Excluding opinion columns, which are currently not allowed, an exclusively one-sided article, either pro- or con- the subject of the article, is a form of advertisement.
4. Wikinews articles are not editorials. Articles should restrict themselves to reporting news and not commenting on the news or newsmakers.

Finding press releases

See Wikinews:Research Desk.

Wikinews reporters looking for ideas on original reporting using press releases are encouraged to use the research desk. Beyond this, there are a number of Wikinews mailing lists. These often have press releases sent to them. If you wish to share press releases, these are a good place to start sharing. If you are looking for ideas from press relases outside the research desk, especially for non-English content, this is another good place to start.

Using a press release

If a press release is used as a source, Template:Source-pr should be used instead of the normal source template to inform readers of this.

Summary of English Wikinews discussions on using press releases

Historically, the community has always rejected the hosting of press releases. The community has always supported a neutral point of view and honoring copyright. While this may not be enshrined in official policy, the community discussion has pretty much made it default policy. Below are some links that demonstrate this. Please seriously consider these before making any suggestion regarding press releases because historical rejection means you are likely to alienate potential allies by not suggesting a better route outline at Wikinews:GLAM.

• Wikinews:Water_cooler/Archive2#Press_releases_and_treating_.22statements.22_as_events: A 2004 complaint about news organizations essentially reprinting press releases as news and a request Wikinews not do this.
• Wikinews:Water_cooler/proposals/Archive/9#Press_releases: A 2005 discussion proposed using User:Brian McNeil/work/Template:Press release. There was limited consensus for its use, and an acknowledgement that the press release would likely be deleted within three days if not used.
• Wikinews:Water_cooler/policy/Archive/8#Press_Releases.2C_Pseudo-events.2C_and_WikiNews.27s_Publishing_Policy: An October 2005 discussion about an article that was viewed as a press release confirmed that such writing is not acceptable on the project.
• Wikinews:Deletion_requests/Archives/Deleted_Archive_15: In 2007, a number of articles were deleted for being press releases or reading like press releases.
• Wikinews:Water_cooler/policy/Archive/17#Reading_a_press_release: A 2008 discussion agreed that reading a press release did not constitute engaging in original reporting.