Everything is Becoming Buzzfeed
An Industry Under Fire
FAKE NEWS. One of the most publicized catchphrases of 2017. It was flung from left to right, right to left, even being shot off from the highest political office of the US. No-one was seemingly immune to meddling of Russians, the shilling of MSNBC, the firehouse of garbage from Facebook, or the “reporting” of online blogs that come with no verification, no actual authenticity. How can we trust anything in this day and age?
It truly saddens me that a combination of major factors have coalesced to undermine such an important industry as journalism. I have long held journalism as one of the few domains completely dedicated to the pursuit of truth, more so than subfields of science at times. Journalists were always the champions of free speech that uncovered and held up truth to power. I grew up watching Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, even staying up late on Sunday school nights to catch the latest 60 minutes. Journalism programs such as this were one of the few places to learn something before the internet age not slathered in drama and misconception.
That’s why it nauseates me to see reports like this -
Come on.
Clickbait Journalism is not Journalism
Things seem to have gotten worse since Time Inc.’s acquisition by partisan bajillionaires. Sad, as Time was a steady stream of eye-opening worldly information for me in my teens.
Another prime example is The Young Turks. I’ll admit here that I followed them for their pro-Bernie rhetoric when (even though I don’t agree with all his methods and overall tone on economic ‘inequality’) Sanders was the only one to champion discussion of college tuition and healthcare. When they started to expand to hire full-time reporters and follow lesser-reported stories like the Keystone Pipeline, I had big hopes for independent online journalism. But these days, TYT is filled with these added gems -
Again, we see the weak knees of news outlets as they fold from high pursuits of journalistic truth and resort to more clicky celebrity gossip and identity politics.
This all highlights a major dilemma of journalism in the modern age. Why would you ever report on conflicts in Sudan or Tibetan secession when you could be making a killing at a fraction of the investment on reactionary videos or the Kardashians? Every day we see Wolf Blitzer reading off tweets by tweens and every night Rachel Maddow sounds more and more like Alex Jones. It’s all becoming a fuzz of hype and hyperbole. And honestly, I can’t decide which political side is doing it worse.
BUT, in an odd perverse shilly way, I’ll add a sliver of silver lining here. I do think this adds another layer of value and motivation for the need of privatized journalism with privatized money - namely cryptocurrency. It’s evident why this journalistic regression is happening and that’s because the modern economy and all the modern media systems existing within it are fueled by clicks and fews. There is no objective value to ‘good journalism’ beyond those marketing metrics. If a separate monetary system, one that divides industry committers from an impressionable youth, were to be put in place, authentic reporting might find a new foundation.
I just realized that I haven’t even addressed why I composed my title in the way I did. Buzzfeed is utter garbage that feeds off of and perpetuates the infantile anxieties of the Western world. And they make tons of money doing it.
Steem on! Not you Buzzfeed.
The internet made everyone a journalist, a writer, a photographer. It was a large platform that could absorb all kinds of 'writing' and gave everyone a voice that was previously available only to a few through editorials in the newspaper.
The problem with Buzzfeed is that it spearheaded listicle 'journalism'. I hated lists. A year ago, it somehow happened that a friend of mine quit his job at The Hindu, an Indian daily, and joined Buzzfeed as a features editor. No, he was not proud but his role was something different. His job was to commission meaningful articles on politics, society and culture. He tried. It was an effort to use Buzzfeed's large readership base to put some good content out there. He wrote Dreams of a Hindu Rashtra hoping to shed some light on the mentality of the ruling right-wing party. He cold mailed prominent journalists trying to convince them to write about the recent demonetisation drive that the government pushed on us about a year ago.
It's not much but I've seen a couple of good articles come from Buzzfeed India in the last year. Last week, he resigned/ was let go. A part of me was happy for him because he was always saying that he was not doing the kind of journalism he wanted to. But a part of me was sad because I had begun to look forward to the content he published on Buzzfeed, making the platform worth something. Now it will go back to being 'utter garbage that feeds off of and perpetuates the infantile anxieties of the Western world. And they make tons of money doing it.'
Beautiful, I love these terms and I'm assuming you're from the profession? I must say, your friend's work is incredibly out of place in Buzzfeed and it's a shame the blog puts so much weight behind "work" on 'manspreading' and 'mansplaining' much more so than actual cultural writing like your friend's. Hopefully he's at a place that actually celebrates diversity and deep thinking.
No no. I'm not a journalist, not even close. I come from a background of architecture and urban planning with a bunch of really good writer friends.
The sad part is that Buzzfeed is NOT the worst. (In fact, it garnered a LOT of criticism from its readers for this article about the Urban Poor sparking many debates about the difference between actual poverty and talking about being poor from a privileged point of view. It showed that the readers are paying attention and are not simple consumers of trash. The article made readers hold the site accountable for the content it produces. Which is what readers should be doing with content they click on).
Then there's Thought Catalogue, ScoopWhoop and so many more such sites whose content used to make me wonder why people spend time writing them. But I guess they have a big readership, no? Who's to contend demand for clickbait?
I have the same frustrations and fears. To be honest, when I'm feeling particularly cynical, I feel like Steemit could fall into that same category, because everything is produced and valued solely from/for the upvote. Since you have a better understanding of the blockchain and the Steemit environment than I do, I'm curious how you think crypto could pull us out of this slippery slope instead of push us further into it?
At least with Steemit, it requires more then clicking through and viewing the article. You (or a bot) has to actually vote for the content.
But I do worry that bots voting on content is undermining the quality.
Yeah the bots are really where my cynicism comes from, because it makes it very clear that people aren't actually absorbing the content, they're just voting for their own benefit. Even curation trails make me feel a little weird sometimes - while I'm glad good work is getting more support through them, it's sad that 99% of the upvotes that come from curation trails are from people who have never even opened the article. But anyway, I do think there's a lot of potential in Steemit.
It'll definitely take a while before the mass of Steemians turn their heads away from the payouts, especially since the $$$ and voting power is so explicitly stated in this interface... I do feel so refreshed when my articles are challenged and my opinions confronted. It reminds me of the days I was a part of debate club in high school and people weren't afraid to voice potentially unpopular opinions or hurt a few feelings for the sake of learning.
Yeah I think there will always be the people who use the platform just for the monetary gains, but this post is a perfect example of how it only really takes a few active readers to get the discussion going, which is enough to keep me coming back to Steemit and posting more and more.
Media is corrupted just like our historie books!
Great that you are not blind and Share this with all the people.
Kind regards,
At the end I think people is guilty for clicking those BuzzFeeds. Once you click they already won.... people, people, people! Ahhh..
They've already won.... :,(
Loved ur post. Have been having similar thoughts myself. Btw I do love TYT's reprint. The noise I generally choose to ignore. They sometimes get a little biased but one cannot really help picking aside these days. @wannaBeMe.
영어는 잘몰라서 구글번역으로 읽어보았는데
버즈피드가 어떤건지 조금은 알게되었네요!
인정 👏👏
Hehehe 감사 @normalbro!
요즘 게다가 언론도 교묘하게 엉망이 되어 가고 있는거 같습니다. 좋은 뉴스를 찾아봐야 하고 뒤로는 어떤 경제적이나 정치적인 논리에 의해 편향이 된 기사들이 많죠.... 저도 그래서 몇번이나 다른 기사들을 찾아보곤 합니다.
훌륭한 글입니다!!!! 공감합니다
페이크 뉴스에 자신도 모르게 빠져드는 이유는 우리의 뇌가 편향지향적으로 전도되기 쉽기 때문이기도 하지요
미국은 제 1가치는 자유 즉 혐오적인 발언도 언론의 자유에 속하지요
극우적으로 편향지향된 사람들이 만들어낸 소셜 미디어 시스템의 특정 알고리즘을 통해 자기복제를 하여 여론을 강화하지요
그러나 스티밋은 자율규제와 자기 명성에 걸맞는 객관적이고 중립적인 콘텐츠를 통해 소통과 공감뿐만 아니라 지식과 지혜를 공유함으로써
세상을 올바르게 바꾸고 개인의 삶을 건전하게 향상시키는 데 큰 일조를 하기를 빕니다
제 포스팅에 글 남기신거 보고 놀러와 봤습니다^^
제가 미국에 있지만. 다 영어라 읽는데 혼이 났습니다.ㅋ
정확히는 모르겠지만 언론이 중요하다.
뭐 이정도면 이해가 된건가요?ㅜㅜ;
여튼 좋은 하루 보내십시요!