“Churnalism” (churn + journalism) is when a journalist simply churns out press release material, or material found on wire services. “Churnalism” has an isolated citation in print in 2001. In 2004, the term was credited to Waseem Zakir, the business journalist with BBC Scotland.
 
   
Wikipedia: Churnalism
Churnalism is a form of journalism in which press releases, wire stories and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or checking. The neologism “churnalism” has been credited to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir who coined the term in 2008.
 
Churnalism has increased to the point that many stories found in the press are not original. The decline of original journalism has been associated with a corresponding rise in public relations.
   
Google Books
Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal:
How to have a great life as a freelance writer
By John Clausen
Cincinnati, OH: Writers’ Digest Books
2001
Pg. 138:
If you were to survive the Ralph Chavez school of journalism (or “churnalism” as he sometimes liked to call it) you learned to churn the stuff out, fix it up in the second draft and then get on with the next thing.
 
Google Books
Journalism:
Principles and Practice
By Tony Harcup
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.
2004
Pg. 1:
Churnalism
Pg. 3:
Waseem Zakir, the business journalist with BBC Scotland, came up with the word “churnalism” to described too much of today’s newsroom activity.
 
Google Books
The Ethical Journalist
By Tony Harcup
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.
2007
Pg. 92:
Much everyday crime news is a form of “churnalism”, a word coined by BBC journalist Waseem Zakir to describe the way in which too many newsrooms rely on journalists simply processing – churning out – copy that arrives from news agencies and press releases.
   
CSS Forum
Glossary For Journalism
prieti
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
(...)
Churnalism - Bad journalism; journalists that churn out rewrites of press releases.
 
Press Gazette
Nick Davies: ‘Churnalism has taken the place of what we should be doing: Telling the truth’
Nick Davies
04 February 2008
 
PR Week
LEADER: PR is not to blame for ‘churnalism’
Danny Rogers, Editor, PR Week UK, Thursday, 07 February 2008, 6:00am, Be the first to comment
This was the week that ‘churnalism’ entered the lexicon. A brash, oxymoronic creation from journalist Nick Davies, who argues many of his colleagues have become puppets for an ever more voracious PR industry.
   
The Mayo News
TUESDAY, 04 MARCH 2008 12:42
The new world of churnalism
County View
John Healy
THERE’S a new word about to enter the lexicon of media terminology, and those who ply the trade of journalism will be none too happy that the inventor thereof is one of their own.
 
Welcome to the world of ‘churnalism’, coined by Nick Davies, one of the print media’s most respected commentators, to describe the prevailing habit in the media of regurgitating material supplied by spin doctors and others with vested interests without even checking the facts.
 
Google Books
The Handbook of Journalism Studies
Edited by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Thomas Hanitzsch
New York, NY: Routledge
2009
Pg. 167:
The cheapest type of news is that produced by what BBC journalist Waseem Zakir coined as “churnalism”—rewrites of press releases, press statements, copy from news agencies and from organised bureaucratic routine sources such as regular calls to the police, fire service, courts local government and other public bodies.
 
Ars Technica
“Churnalism” tracker catches journalists copying press releases, Wikipedia
Sunlight Foundation’s new tool tracks copy-pasta.
by Jonathan M. Gitlin - Apr 24 2013, 11:03am CDT
“Churnalism” is a term for the practice of journalists publishing press releases verbatim, or almost verbatim, rather than writing original copy. A few years ago, UK organization Media Standards Trust created an online tool, churnalism.com, that allows users to compare text to a database of articles from UK national newspapers, the BBC, and so on, to see whether or not those media outlets are simply copying and pasting. Great for consumers of UK media, but churnalism is a global problem. Thanks to a collaboration between the Sunlight Foundation and the Media Standards Trust, consumers of US news now have a similar resource, Churnalism US.
 
Ace of Spades HQ
April 27, 2013
The Media Just Doesn’t Get Science, Part 16,331
(...)
“Churnalism:” Weft-Cut Loop tells me that Watts Up With That has coined a term for this fashion of journalism, the re-writing and re-purposing the same damn article with the most trivial of “new” newshooks (such as the breakthrough of successfully mixing and pouring concrete).
 
They call it “churnalism.”