Why We Should Ignore Blogs
- Jul 15, 2014
- 3 min read
Okay, I was wrong. . . a little.
After I resisted my initial urge to take a sledge hammer to my commuter (Office Space style) I have calmed down and reconsidered my opinion. The reason for my extreme behaviour is Ryan Holiday’s book, Trust Me I’m Lying. It’s a terrible account about one man’s effort to manipulate blogs, news – and by extension public opinion for his or his client’s benefit.
After I got over my initial shock, the second half of the book is actually an interesting read about how modern media works, the post subscription model.
We really are in an era of Yellow Journalism
Holiday compares Yellow Journalism with the modern blog media and how we've reverted back to sensationalism and the reasons why.
When I was a Young Lad. . .
In the good old days, before internet, we used to buy and read news based on the reputation of the news outlet. We bought the New York Times because it was the New York frigging Times! We could subscribe to the Times because we knew it had a high standard and we could trust the reporters to do rigorous fact checking.
The State of the Nation
Now most people read articles based on the individual merit of each post. People don’t care if something is posted on the New York Times Website, the Huffington Post or Plain Jane’s Gossip blog. They just click on anything that appears interesting—basically the most intriguing headline.
This sort of competition for eyeballs forces writings to write the most sensational stories, regardless of their truth. This media atmosphere is how we get articles about how people think Steven Spielberg killed an actual dinosaur. This bizarre, crazy story started out on Facebook but spread like an infestation of locusts to blogs like Buzzfeed and even USA Today.
What Modern Journalism Should have been
Blogs should have been away to get the public away from the mainstream press, to give us a fresh perspective, and in some instances it has done that. WikiLeaks, for example has given us a new narrative, one that is fresh of spin and government and large corporate spin. But unfortunately the competition is just too great and there just isn't enough large leaks for a site like WikiLeaks to be profitable.
Can We Go Back in Time?
To tell you the truth I don’t pay much attention to Gwaker, or Jezebel and the effect they have on media. But, thanks to Mr. Holiday’s book, I have learned how they feed content onto the larger sites such as Huffington Post and even the Lost Angeles Times.
These larger news organizations feel they must cover what is posted on the smaller blogs simply because they get so much attention. The internet is an incestuous place, if nothing else.
As with the Yellow Press of the early 1900’s there will eventually be a backlash against these news blogs. It might not happen for several decades, but people will eventually get tired of being lied to.
There will always be an appetite for quality journalism and eventually the large publications like the New York Times, Washington Post will catch up to the blogs and find out a subscription model that works for them.
A couple of online entrepreneurs have either bought existing publications or started new ones and eventually they will crack the code.
The Historical Perspective
As with bull and bear markets, it makes me wonder if there is a cycle to the media, just like the stock market, or if there is a third state of media we have yet to experience. Modern journalism started with the invention of the telegraph and it’s unfortunate it hasn’t been around long enough for us to really fully understand it from a historic perspective yet.
What do you think about modern journalism? Have we reverted back to Yellow Journalism?
Written by Joel Mark Harris
I'm a blogger, editor and film producer. I write about marketing, media, finance and sports. I'm available for hire. Email me at contact@joelmarkharris.com
Comments