Admit it, we all fall for click bait. I know I do and regret it the majority of the tim. Why do we do it and what is wrong with it? I cite a specific problem with our reliance on click bait for getting our so called news.
Journalism is also being Uber-ized.
Increasingly, content isn’t created by journalists once employed by legacy media.
It comes from freelancers, citizen journalists, bloggers and vloggers.
Freelancers are being hired while experienced, older journalists are laid off.
In the rush to return to the once-rich profit margins of the early 2000s, media organizations are being urged by their shareholders to dispense with expensive ventures like international reporting.
Newspapers have closed or been downsized, broadcasters have cut their more expensive (and more labor-intensive) content.
News consultants like Frank N. Magid Associates are hired to tell their news clients that weather, traffic and crime, or WTC, are what most audiences prefer.
Not coincidentally, WTC also happens to be the cheapest and most readily available content.
And all three bits of low-hanging journalistic fruit originate from government sources: weather from the National Weather Service (Environment Canada based in Ottawa), traffic reports from various Department of Transportations at the state and provincial levels and, of course, crime from local police forces.
(The last of these may have a financial incentive to make sure that the media reports as much criminal activity as possible, even when crime rates are declining.)
Be sure to tune in to KGO 810 today noon to 2pm Pacific time (2-4 Central) as I interview Gov. Gary Johnson, and have Professor Jessica Levinson on to discuss a major court ruling regarding your kids and grandkids 529 college savings plan – www.kgoradio.com
