Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection, by Jacob Silverman is a vitriolic criticism of social media’s effect on the lives of millions of unwitting consumers. The fine print inside the terms of service agreement, which must be submitted to in order to use these sites, contains the demise of our privacy and perhaps the users’ sense of self. The focus of this essay will be on the fifth chapter in that book, Churnalism and the Problem of Social News, wherein Silverman eviscerates the lazy and desperate tactics which social media allows journalists to get away with. Silverman’s argument is this: the monetary incentive for journalists to promote that which will trend and write that which will sound good in the ear of
…show more content…
Tweeting and other media allow for this. It’s a model heavily relied upon by the 24-hour television news cycle; as Silverman writes, “It is devoutly felt at CNN and Fox News that prestige or viewership or both depend on being the first, even if only by seconds, to announce practically anything.” (Silverman 110) Those who consume a lot of print media and prefer to read the entire, exhaustive report might prefer a more careful, structured approach to news. But social media has allowed journalists to update a developing story by the minute, without giving the story time to verify or eliminate any of the information floating around the event. A consumer could easily walk away with half the story and unreliable information, causing needless anxiety and spreading …show more content…
It’s a trick which is used by the lowly, ingratiating Buzzfeed types, but has also been done by even the Atlantic. The already precarious position of journalism in the public eye is not helped by these habits. Whatever Bleacher Report or Buzzfeed are doing, it cannot be called journalism. It cannot even be called news, since, the content which is being popularized, isn’t even being read for its merits or it’s relevancy. This entire construct relies upon whatever memes happen to be viral at that time. Then the social media, virality machine will simply slap it into a headline and a few scattered lines of description below a video. Silverman’s assessment of Bleacher report is “it produces easily shareable, worthless viral content for very low cost, and it produces immense amounts of it, all while claiming total faith in its data.” (Silverman
Tweeting and other media allow for this. It’s a model heavily relied upon by the 24-hour television news cycle; as Silverman writes, “It is devoutly felt at CNN and Fox News that prestige or viewership or both depend on being the first, even if only by seconds, to announce practically anything.” (Silverman 110) Those who consume a lot of print media and prefer to read the entire, exhaustive report might prefer a more careful, structured approach to news. But social media has allowed journalists to update a developing story by the minute, without giving the story time to verify or eliminate any of the information floating around the event. A consumer could easily walk away with half the story and unreliable information, causing needless anxiety and spreading …show more content…
It’s a trick which is used by the lowly, ingratiating Buzzfeed types, but has also been done by even the Atlantic. The already precarious position of journalism in the public eye is not helped by these habits. Whatever Bleacher Report or Buzzfeed are doing, it cannot be called journalism. It cannot even be called news, since, the content which is being popularized, isn’t even being read for its merits or it’s relevancy. This entire construct relies upon whatever memes happen to be viral at that time. Then the social media, virality machine will simply slap it into a headline and a few scattered lines of description below a video. Silverman’s assessment of Bleacher report is “it produces easily shareable, worthless viral content for very low cost, and it produces immense amounts of it, all while claiming total faith in its data.” (Silverman