Stories about proliferation of "Internet News"
September 18, 2022 8:37 AM Subscribe
I'm seeing more and more "news" stories that are about the Internet. Not in-depth interesting stories but lazy things that are essentially copy pastes from r/AITA or descriptions of TikTok posts with no research into whether they are even true, who is involved, etc. They used to have headlines implying action where there was none, describing statements as "blasts" for instance, but now they pretend that the aggregate of internet opinions are some kind of polling data, beginning with "internet sides with____". Where can I find an article about these articles, like an article I read about the rise of the chumbox?
My first thought, although I don't know how you would do it, would be to take a look at TV news reporting and when segments similar to that became more frequent. I've seen cable news channels doing "Twitter reacts" type stuff following a story.
posted by ToddBurson at 6:47 PM on September 18, 2022
posted by ToddBurson at 6:47 PM on September 18, 2022
It feels related to how entertainment and political media has always reported on itself, with commentary about stories about nebulous "popular sentiment" about etc. It's just that in addition to "industry members [meaning 'some rando we talked to'] are worried that Academy members will think that..." you get that same loop around social media fights/buzz/etc.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:31 AM on September 19, 2022
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:31 AM on September 19, 2022
Best answer: I've been recommending this a lot lately for some reason, but check out the Garbage Day email newsletter from Ryan Broderick and also his podcast The Content Mines, both of which are chock full of great analyses of internet culture and how it's represented in the broader media. Today's issue, in fact, is titled "Websites are just places to talk about TikTok." (Click on "let me read it first" to see the newsletter content at that link)
I'd say the newsletter is better in terms of getting to the point and staying on topic, and it's also got a great mix of "here's something frivolous that's been making the rounds that you might have missed plus a little background" alongside longer analysis of a topic; the podcast can be a little rambly at times, but still more on topic than podcasts that just have a few people sitting around chatting. Both scratch the itch for serious-but-sometimes-funny consideration of internet culture that I have missed since the Reply All podcast ended.
Anyway, today's newsletter subject made me think of your question and it's connected to another recent piece (Where Do Memes Come From) in which he analyzes the origin platforms of memes and content getting shared around the internet.
Oh, one other tip...you can subscribe to any substack newsletter via rss by adding `\feed\` to the end of the URL. The last thing I need is more clutter in my inbox, and it's nice to be using an RSS reader again!
posted by msbrauer at 1:41 PM on September 19, 2022
I'd say the newsletter is better in terms of getting to the point and staying on topic, and it's also got a great mix of "here's something frivolous that's been making the rounds that you might have missed plus a little background" alongside longer analysis of a topic; the podcast can be a little rambly at times, but still more on topic than podcasts that just have a few people sitting around chatting. Both scratch the itch for serious-but-sometimes-funny consideration of internet culture that I have missed since the Reply All podcast ended.
Anyway, today's newsletter subject made me think of your question and it's connected to another recent piece (Where Do Memes Come From) in which he analyzes the origin platforms of memes and content getting shared around the internet.
Oh, one other tip...you can subscribe to any substack newsletter via rss by adding `\feed\` to the end of the URL. The last thing I need is more clutter in my inbox, and it's nice to be using an RSS reader again!
posted by msbrauer at 1:41 PM on September 19, 2022
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posted by Seeking Direction at 6:43 PM on September 18, 2022