Hard News’ Worst Nightmare: BuzzFeed
My morning routines didn’t change much from elementary school to middle school to high school. I would wake up, shower, get dressed, brush my teeth and do whatever I had to do to look somewhat decent. I remember eating breakfast before going to school every day. I would sit there, watching SpongeBob and eating something along the lines of a Hot Pocket or Eggo waffles.
My dad stuck to his routine too. His was a little different, though. He got ready for work, made a cup of coffee, and sat in the dining room with a newspaper. It looked all too familiar. My grandpa used to do the same thing.
I don’t see that same routine in my future; partly because everything I need to know about the world can be accessed on my phone. But that’s not what I’m talking about. What I mean is that our generation is slowly losing interest in hard, breaking news to a point where no one will even want to look at the headlines on the front page of a newspaper, which are supposedly the most important stories.
Times are changing.
Scrolling through BuzzFeed for hours at a time is one of my guilty pleasures. The company posts fun and quirky content every day, and the pointless quizzes are way too addicting. What’s not to love about it? However, BuzzFeed could very well be a contributing factor to the loss of interest in hard news.
Readers are slowly losing interest in hard news and BuzzFeed has recognized that. Hard news stories can still be found on the company’s news feed, but those stories are often overshadowed by attractive human-interest stories. The average young adult seems to prefer reading about Beyoncé’s Coachella performance than about the latest updates on politics.
Just look at this screenshot of BuzzFeed’s news page. People should learn about the family who was involved in a fatal car accident. The #MeToo movement is important as well. But when I was scrolling through this feed, my eyes immediately focused on the “stoned pet raccoon.” So, of course, I had to learn about the raccoon’s current status. If you were wondering, the article ended without a resolution, so I’ll never know how that story ends. But the point is, as a result of me clicking on the raccoon story, the two stories that were actually more important were left ignored.
BuzzFeed’s business tactics are genius, but they could be a threat to hard news. Teenagers and young adults are drawn to stories that are entertaining and fun to read. The random quizzes and food recipes are also big hits. It seems like BuzzFeed is primarily concerned with viewership numbers rather than what those viewers actually learn. Who’s to say more news outlets won’t follow? Hard news might be in danger.
I expect to see a rapid increase in soft news stories. They’re fun to read, fun to write and usually aren’t time-sensitive. I, myself, enjoy writing feature stories because it allows me to be creative with my storytelling, which is something that I normally can’t do with traditional news writing styles. Hard news will always be published because the public needs to be informed about important world events and issues. Even so, viewers are going to be attracted to soft news, so news organizations are going to have to find creative ways to get their audience to consume hard news.
