When you think of “hard news”, a company that once published an article called “13 Potatoes That Look Like Channing Tatum” probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yes, in this episode Hannah and Maia are tackling Buzzfeed - the millennial fluff aggregator that managed to be on the cutting edge of digital journalism for a bit there. And in the process, changed the way we consume news, and maybe even the societal flow of information altogether. Journalism is in crisis… and is Buzzfeed to blame? Listen for riveting discussions such as: the digital media gold rush and its inevitable demise; is Trump the attention economy personified? Is Justin Bieber one of the four horsemen of the news apocalypse? And… does Anna Wintour really have a f*ck ass bob? 

SOURCES:

Jill Abramson, “Why BuzzFeed and Vice Couldn’t Make News Work” Vanity Fair (2023).

Domagoj Bebić, “Viral journalism: The rise of a new form” Medij. Istraž, vol. 22, (2016).

David Elliot Berman, “The Spaces of Sensationalism: A Comparative Case Study of the New York Journal and BuzzFeed” International Journal of Communication, vol. 15 (2021).

Ken Bensinger and Miriam Elder, “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia” Buzzfeed News (2017).

Kathryn Bowd, “Social media and news media: Building new publics or fragmenting audiences?” in Making Publics, Making Places, ed. Mary Griffiths and Kim Barbour, University of Adelaide Press (2016).

Bob Franklin, “The Future of Journalism in an Age of Digital Media and Economic Uncertainty” Journalism Studies, vol. 15 (2014).

Josh Gerstein, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Politico (2021).

David A. Graham, The Trouble With Publishing the Trump Dossier” The Atlantic (2017).

John Herrman, “The News Went Viral: The media bet its future on Facebook. Did it learn from that mistake?” New York Mag (2023).

Nathan J. Robinson, “The Collapse of BuzzFeed News Shows Why For-Profit Journalism is a Disaster” Current Affairs (2023).

Rachel Sanders, “BuzzFeed Doesn’t Deserve Its Newsroom” The Nation (2022).

Mia Sato, “The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed” The Verge (2022).

Alyson Shontell, “Inside Buzzfeed: The Story Of How Jonah Peretti Built The Web's Most Beloved New Media Brand” Buzzfeed Insider (2012).

Ravi Somaiya, “BuzzFeed Restores 2 Posts Its Editor Deleted” The New York Times (2015).

J.K Trotter, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Gawker (2015).