astroturfing

Generating public excitement in a subject by posting anonymous comments to blogs, wikis and other public venues. Astroturfing looks like spontaneous comments from different people but is really an orchestrated campaign by an organization or public relations firm. The term comes from AstroTurf, which is a renowned "fake" lawn made to look like real grass. See meat puppet.

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"We also plan to use Truthy to detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution," its information page reads.

Watch your tweets: Big Brother is monitoring

In the astroturfing example, a bill that is likely to have negative effects on your industry is up for consideration at the federal level.

Ethics in the real world: an upcoming training program will help communicators understand and develop ethical business practices

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