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Jeebus. That is an excellent point.
It's very hard to recognize parodies these days.,
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Pretty genius article from the standpoint of harvesting clicks and getting shared.
Jeebus. That is an excellent point.
It's very hard to recognize parodies these days.,
It's not even about parodies or reality anymore.
What matters for these writers and these organizations is 'clicks,' and it's effected every single media outlet and publication.
Essentially, newspapers and magazines make money from selling advertising. And the amount of money they can charge advertisers is based on how many people read their publications.
In the past, when newspapers and magazines were made of paper, this readership was based on how many delivery subscribers they had + how many copies they sold a month.
Now that things are online, these publications still make money from advertising. But, what they charge on is based on daily / monthly page views.
And the competition for page views clicks is ferocious. Gone are the days of 2 local newspapers + the new york times + time magazine being "it" for advertising. Now there's an entire galaxy of publications fighting to the death for ad revenue.
-->The result has been an abandonment of "quality" writing as a primary goal for writers. The new goal is "clicks" - crafting articles that generate the maximum amount of views and shares. Because clicks are all the advertiser cares about, and thats what pays the bills.
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You may be reading these articles that drive you nuts / make you angry / make you afraid / inspire derision and memes, and think "this is the world I live in now."
But its not the world or reality. What it is, is carefully crafted content designed to get the maximum amount of clicks. And what gets clicks is "emotional valences," the deliberate spiking of positive or negative emotions in the reader.
The result is a collective race to the bottom in terms of quality, and a race to the top in pursuit of emotion spiking, controversial nonsense.
And frankly, we are partially to blame.
When was the last time any of us sat down and read a 5,000 word article detailing an extensive analysis and investigation of an important issue effecting mankind?
Now, when was the last time we clicked on a bullshit article about racists / trans people / fake indians / gun control / celebrity gossip / twitter controversy / beta male takeover etc shit that pushes our buttons?
For more info on how this whole system works, I highly recommend reading "Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator." Its an eye opener.
https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator/dp/1591846285