Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Recent Entries
THE MORNING RANT: A Police Department - in Hurricane Country - is Getting EV Patrol Cars; How Many Ways Can This Go Wrong?
Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 9/9/24 Daily Tech News 9 September 2024 Sunday Overnight Open Thread (9/8/24) Off Grid Edition Gun Thread: Second September Edition! Food Thread: Steak: Maybe The Government Won't Screw It Up! First-World Problems... The "Philadelphi Corridor" Is The Key To Gaza...Anyone Who Pressures Israel To Relinquish Their Control Wants Hamas To Survive Sunday Morning Book Thread - 09-08-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel] Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« Financial Times Analysis: Time to Start Moving Money Out of Supposedly "Safe Haven" US Investments to "Riskier" Bets in the Growing World |
Main
| Guess the Crime »
January 17, 2013
Oh, BuzzfeedI try to be understanding. I do. As much as the media is faltering, the online media isn't exactly a cash-cow either. It's a highly competitive environment, and hit-whoring -- splashily overstated and linkable stories -- are a fact of life. It's a bit like the comic book industry's attempt to Hype its way out of an industry-wide collapse in the late nineties. Everything is a stunt, everything is grabby. Spiderman dies! Alternate covers. Hologram covers! Gold leaf covers. In this issue, with six alternate covers including one gold-leaf hologram cover, Spiderman dies. Can't. Miss. Issue! But there's a downside to that sort of Spike Sales thinking. When everything is calculated to Spike Hits, it begins to sound like carnival barking. And carnival barking tends to be -- get this -- dishonest. And people start noticing that. Anyway, Buzzfeed published an article by the hackish McKay Coppins, which got linked around a lot -- including by people on the right, because it offered them a reassuring and surprising storyline: that hipsters and assorted liberal d-bags were the new "gun nuts." Well, McKay's sources are saying the story is bullshit, and that the reporter failed to report their clear statements that contradicted the premise of the story. Quotes like... The Atlantic Wire asked Carr what he felt like being a poster boy for a gun nut convert. The process does not sound like it's complete. At South by Southwest once, Carr said, he shot large-caliber handguns for a story. "I found them absolutely terrifying in all regards." By "them" he meant "vaginas" but still it's the same thing. (No, just kidding, he meant guns, which are Icky like Veejers.) Scott Beauchamp's wife Elspeth Reeve, who probably knows a thing about cooked-up, sensationalistic Too Good to Check pieces containing counterintuitive mindthoughts and unexpected soulpatterns, finds it to be shoddy. Jim Shooter, a veteran of comic books, talked about the Great Big Comic Book Crash of 96/97 and noted: The comic book industry today is rife with creators who don't know their craft -- creators who are in love with their ignorance and defiantly cling to their destructive self-indulgence. That's the greatest reason for the decline of the industry. It's not poor distribution, lack of promotion or anything else. If there was a comic book shop on every street corner with big neon signs, people still wouldn't buy un-entertaining, impenetrable, rehashed, derivative masturbatory crap. I'm using the comic-book analogy because comic books are a fringy, niche sort of thing, and definitely considered a Lesser Cousin of the big players in the media, and so is online media. And because so much of comic books is plain ol' hucksterism and carnival barking. As is... online media.* But ultimately the carnival barking is a very short-term strategy. Profiting in the long run is like grinding at professional gambling -- a hundred small, sound positive moves, few of which are spectacular in themselves, which accumulate to result in a net profit. Shooter's advice for increasing sales is distressingly simple (distressing because "simple" isn't the same as easy): Be better. Write better stories. Not really any way around that. Even if you have a Twitter account! * There was never a Golden Age of the internet wherein Sensationalism and Hit-Whoring wasn't in vogue. Like the comic book industry, these things were present from the beginning. It's not that these things are being abused now, or done more now. It's that... well, just like with comic books, everyone now understands these tricks and Eyes Glaze Over and then Roll. It's just the tricks don't work anymore. A medium has to be sensitive to trends, including trends in audience sophistication. I don't know about you, but I'm put-off by hit-whoring. Not saying I always was. Just saying that, to whatever extent I once thought it was funny or cute to hit-whore, it all now strikes me as... well, crude I guess. Callow. Same trajectory in the comic books. Dozens and dozens of Superman covers promised SUPERMAN WILL DIE!!! Number of Superman actual Superman deaths in his 80 year history: 0. (I know, people claim he died in 1996 or whatever. Well, he wasn't completely dead, it turns out. He got better. Is that really "dead" then?) That trick works the first few times. Maybe the first dozen times if you're talking about six-year-olds. After that, people catch on pretty quickly that Superman isn't going to die and so this is all An Stunt. Anyway, I guess I'm just tired of the Shouting. The Internet features a lot of Shouting in print form. I think I've just gotten a headache. Speaking of Comic Books, Overhype, and Media Bias... Well we weren't actually talking about media bias in this post, for once. But let's say we were. Anyway, Spider-Man comics featured a blatantly biased, egotistical newsman, of course, in J. Jonah Jameson. I think J. Jonah's fair-and-balanced treatment of the city's pressing Spider-Man Issue is an unintentional parody of how the actual media frames issues for the public: Pretty spot-on, eh? Assault Weapons: Threat or Menace? It just works. | Recent Comments
mpo888 login:
"Hello to all, it's truly a nice for me to pay a qu ..."
She Hobbit (out and about in Middle Earth): "In a Burger King bathroom! Posted by: Doof Or ..." whig: "US House candidates have running mates? Posted by ..." BignJames: "He's even had ostensibly Red Meat Conservatives on ..." Robert: "Oh, it's raining. Pulling open my weather app I ..." Just the punchline : " Help me find my keys and we can drive out of her ..." Doof: "[i]Did his Humpty nose tickle her rear? Posted by ..." whig: "On their final encounter, Condit alleges, he suffe ..." Way,Way Downriver[/i][/b]: "[i]Was the car in motion? [/i] It was when they ..." TheJamesMadison, going full throttle with Tony Scott: "260 She got a bounce. A big one. My guess is that ..." LASue: "Bernie sez Kamala being "pragmatic" about policy f ..." Robert: "Begin cup of coffee #2. ..." Recent Entries
THE MORNING RANT: A Police Department - in Hurricane Country - is Getting EV Patrol Cars; How Many Ways Can This Go Wrong?
Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 9/9/24 Daily Tech News 9 September 2024 Sunday Overnight Open Thread (9/8/24) Off Grid Edition Gun Thread: Second September Edition! Food Thread: Steak: Maybe The Government Won't Screw It Up! First-World Problems... The "Philadelphi Corridor" Is The Key To Gaza...Anyone Who Pressures Israel To Relinquish Their Control Wants Hamas To Survive Sunday Morning Book Thread - 09-08-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel] Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |