Today, sensational and fake news stories spread like wildfire thanks to the Internet. Facebook has moved from its original intent to connect people to a viral mechanism to misinform them. You can thank poor media literacy for that.
Twitter has a problem: A lack of conversation.
There are no sacred mastheads anymore. Every outlet has a bias, and most reporters are chumming the social network waters for the most shares. How the Washington Post muffed the Washington Nationals new manger hire, and smeared team officials in the process.
Are algorithms impacting the inevitable break from the norm that humans experience?
In the old days of “influencer relations” (you know way back when in 2009), PR professionals targeted the magic middle and top tier bloggers, which triggered larger blog coverage, and then more often than not traditional news media.
Since then digital media companies straddled the space occupied by both traditional journals and the top tier of bloggers. They use algorithms to detect hot news stories before they trend in the blogosphere, then break the news before traditional players and bloggers alike.
Specifically, Mashable, the Huffington Post, Forbes, Google and the others use algorithms listen to chatter on the social web. When hot trends bubble up they source the content provider, assign a reporter, or in the worst cases use narrative science — computer-based news writing — to break the story first.
This effectively takes power away from PR executives to affect the news cycle through traditional influencer outreach, and in turn, empowers the crowd to determine stories.
Some news outlets use the crowd to validate top stories, too. Validation is embodied by shares on social networks and comments.
For example, USA Today features stories on its web properties based on the posts that get shared the most. The old assignment editor loses weight in these scenarios.
Read More »Beating the Algorithm
President Obama and Jack Dorsey at the White House Twitter Town Hall Everyone talks about relationships and the importance of two-way interaction in social media. Participation is a cornerstone of building strong community presence. But other than core subject matter… Read More »Give Them Something to Talk About
Image by S_Mercurier Today’s oped in the Washington Post by former Nightline Chief Ted Koppel declares the Death of Real News. Prompted by FOX and MSNBC’s clear political views, this piece declares something many have come to know: Our society… Read More »Ted Koppel & the Death of Real News