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How Buzzfeed's Rise Signals The End Of Journalism

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It seems like every day, I’m reading yet another article about how BuzzFeed’s rise signals the end of journalism as we know it, plunging us into an era where mindless drones, void of any journalistic integrity, occupy a barren digital landscape stripped of anything of substance, but filled with a barrage of listicles and personality quizzes. Personally, I think people are overreacting: BuzzFeed has never claimed to be The Wall Street Journal, so why are we holding it to such high standards? And the last time I checked, WSJ, The New York Times, The Washington Post and a myriad of other “respectable” publications are still here. They haven’t been sucked into the same black hole of irrelevance that AltaVista and MySpace went to die. So why are people freaking out? I think we just assume that everyone these days is off reading garbage like BuzzFeed instead of The New York Times. And while sites like the Times have millions of readers, it is true that BuzzFeed is growing more popular, especially with the younger generation (does it make me sound old when I use phrases like “the younger generation”?). Whether you like it or not, that’s partly because BuzzFeed has an undeniably better digital strategy than a lot of the more established outlets, and I think that’s something to respect and learn from. Digital dominance First, BuzzFeed has done a lot to make its site a community and not just a destination. Sure, not all of its quizzes are winners, but by having such quizzes and

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