Essay on Influence and Contribution of BuzzFeed in the Public Sphere

BuzzFeed makes the majority of its money on ads that pretend to be content, but can it keep up this charade? Or, is the Starbucks-sponsored “10 Summer Emojis That Should Definitely Exist” no charade at all, but actually the future of media that we should just smile and accept?

Advertisements today are everywhere. The average consumer is bombarded with some sort of ad at every blink of an eye. In the beginning, advertisements were only seen on the television or heard on the radio, but now advertising is leaking into the consumer’s phone, in virtually every application. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, the list goes on. Advertisements are made to grab the consumer’s attention swaying them to purchase whatever it might be the producer is try to sell.

Facebook is starting to “crack down” on fake news articles throughout the social media website. However, Katrina Trinko says, Facebook’s fact-checkers have a liberal bias. Trinko believes that many of the fake articles on Facebook are withholding information that is containing the whole truth. She believes that these “fact-checkers” are more likely to crack down on conservative views instead of the liberal views. (Katrina Trinko Facebook fact-checkers have a liberal bias) Facebook like other social media sites, have been accused of posting fake articles across their website. According to the PEW research center, sixty-seven percent of Americans rely on social media for their news coverage (News use across social media platforms 2016: Jeffrey Gottfried and Elisa Sherer). While social media has been known to show “fake news”, this has a huge impact on the influence of the viewers (mostly being American teenagers). Whenever there has been fake news across Facebook, there are circumstances where the fake news will be shared. Although the person who shares the fake news may not realize that it is fake, the news is being shared causing people to believe that it is true. Facebook is reaching out to the conservative political action conference who are questioning the potential for bias news articles. Facebook was censoring stories about conservative topics back in spring of 2016. Now, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is investigating and Facebook moved its automate to the trending news section. Facebook is working to ensure that the

Over the course of the week I have seen a countless amount of advertisements. From the subway to the back of my textbooks, there was no space left ad-less. One of the advertisements that stood out to me was on Buzzfeed. The ad blended in with each quiz I took. At a glance, one would believe that the ads was a question on the quiz, but once they’d click the answer the sponsored ad reveals it’s true content.

The internet is our modern source for news media; the importance of the newspaper has not only declined, it is in a sense, obsolete. We now turn to the internet for opinions, news, and entertainment. Even though the way in which we consume information (PBS) has changed, the importance of an unrestricted and watchful media has not changed. (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2010)

Is a news source as trustworthy as some people may claim it to be, or is it all based on political standings nowadays? In today’s world, news can be very shady, and most of the time makes an attempt to sway a person’s political standings. Although Buzzfeed can be a good source of news and entertainment simultaneously, it’s not always reliable, biased, and can provide faulty information based on hastiness to attract the younger audience.

Eli Pariser from TED Talk, “What Facebook and Google are Hiding from the World” reveals Facebook, Google and other major companies are notorious for keeping track of what type of content gets the user’s attention. Whether it be a local news article or a follow up on the presidential debate, these websites keep track and collect your data. From there on, the websites tailor their content to what they think the user will be most interested in. Depending on what the user’s past history, these websites can pick and choose what they show, which in turn can affect what the user is exposed to. Though it sounds like the perfect algorithm to customize content to the user’s interests, it keeps the user in a bubble and halts any change and growth, and limits their perspective. Another example of this, would be that media filters the content they present. Sandy Donovan claims, “ So the media has to choose which stories to cover...Those choices largely depend on what the media outlet’s audience wants to hear.” (Media, 9). Donovan is essentially saying if the media was geared to a specific subject, they would not be able to cover every piece of information, therefore they choose what is worth covering. Unfortunately, in this fast-paced day and age, headlines are what draw people in, and that does not necessarily mean that article of information is important

Kaye is the professor in the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She studies the effects media has on consumers and how they use new technologies to get their information. Thomas J. Johnson got his Ph.D. at the University of Washington and he researches how people’s political attitudes and behaviors are affected by digital and social media. The topic discussed in the article is the influence media platforms have on the public’s interpretation on politics, which are the areas of expertise and research that the two authors work on. Kaye studies the technologies behind presenting information and Johnson studies the effects media can have on people’s attitudes and behaviors. This validates them both as credible sources. The article is published in a journal that specifically discusses broadcasting and electronic media, which also acts as the authors’ targeted audience––people familiar and interested in broadcasting and media. This is interesting, when the article talks about how some people can be tunnel visioned into believing only some sources and exposes the audience they’re writing

The opportunities and challenges in today’s economy which have affected and are still affecting USA Today is primarily due to our technology-driven society (Ferrell and Hartline, 2014). In a generation where information is easily accessible through a mobile device or PC, few people think about leaving their homes or walking in a store to purchase a newspaper. The innovativeness of social media is a great method of communicating with millennials;however, USA Today must ensure that the stories reported are those that will intrigue this target group. In a 1997 article by Fabian, USA Today is seen as a news source that delivers boring and unentertaining news. The paper is also referred to as a sleeping pill, rather than an informative source of

Picture this, you’re in your bed with your laptop burning a hole through your thighs as you scroll through the web in search of wholesome entertainment. With the click of a button you are transported and land upon the website homepage of Buzzfeed-a multi-platform social news and entertainment company. Provided are hundreds of links and activities available so that you may, skim through tasty recipies, waste time on interesting yet pointless quizzes, and a fan favorite, watch videos of men and or women trying weird, different things and enduring unusual experiences.

One central idea in this text was the decline in the number of people who read the newspaper. Finley states “The biggest decline occurred between October 2008 and March 2009, when the average sales declined 7.1 percent from the same time period a year earlier.” This statement shows how the numbers declined. Most people that are using the internet to get news do not understand how most of the information is not based on facts like the newspapers are. Newspaper base their information on the important and historical stuff that happens in the world, but the internet base their information on entertainment that attracts more teenage views. Most journalist try to attract the views of teenagers, but newspapers try not to focus on entertainment as much as the internet.

BuzzFeed is the irreverent US news and entertainment website taking social media by storm. The site is said to be one of the fastest-growing on the internet, with more than 40 million people a month viewing vital hits, mostly about animals. BuzzFeed was started by Jonah Peretti who helped Arianna Huffington launch the Huffington Post in 2005. BuzzFeed now has almost twice as monthly visitors as Huffington’s site had when it was bought for $315M by AOL in 2011. The secret to BuzzFeed’s success is because of one high-profile investor, the Buddy Media co-founder Kazz Lazerow, hailed BuzzFeed as building “the defining media company for the social age”. Its mixture of humorous lists, celebrity gossip, picture stories and breaking news has captured

This research has been conducted due to the fact that some researchers have claimed that “journalism is dying” whilst others have argued that “journalism is not dying but is simply evolving” (Blatchford: 2014). This has been a much contested debate triggered by the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources i.e. newspapers, television and radio together with the technological advances of the internet and social media (Cub Reporters: 2010). This has raised many questions and firstly, this dissertation will assess whether the rise of social media has led to the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources. Secondly, this paper will look at what the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a news distributor are for professional journalists and the general public. Lastly, this study aims to investigate

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

The overview of the subject matter is that the big worry is that quality will decline Journalists are employed to check their facts and they get checked in turn by editors who question the reliability of their sources; we trust the paper’s brand not the individual journalist. Social media could be reliable, but how would we know? This is equally true then it comes to bias. But the fact of the matter is journalism is more credible and if we lose credibility in the information we get everything could fall for speculation. The authors’ thesis is we should not stand for the decline of journalism as a profession but support our right to have valuable information