We live in a generation where everything is available in an instant. From news to Netflix to calculators that solve math problems for us, all that we consume is expected to be here and now, lest we get angry and put our foot through the computer or throw our phones into a lake. 

Without a doubt, this is a symptom of the dependence modern American society has on the internet. It seems no matter what career you go into, you will have to use the internet. 

When we became more reliant on the internet, we also became more connected, and even dependent, on social media. Today, it seems like we consume all our news through Facebook and Twitter. Even Snapchat and Instagram have news sections where you can read big stories from multimedia slideshows. 

And through this different venue of consumption, we have been granted freedoms and powers to share and help promote brands of our favorite publications. Because of this, off-brand websites such as Buzzfeed, Daily Mail, ComicBook.com and more post trendy content that inevitably gets many clicks and shares. This buries real news provided by real journalists, and as a result, these websites eat all the advertising revenue, which hurts the real news organizations. 

These websites cater to audiences’ tastes, which are further insulated and reinforced by algorithms that only show content related to user interests based on websites they have visited before. 

Journalism should not be a pluralistic process, where the most popular or widely accepted story is deemed the most important. Journalists should strive for objectivity. And journalists must not be punished for breaking the “bad” news to an audience that doesn’t want to hear it. 

John Milton once proposed a “marketplace of ideas” — that when all ideas are free to be expressed, the best would inevitably float to the top by their own merit, and not based on what people wanted or did not want. However, the algorithms present on social media change the game, and make the ideas that resonate more with people float to the top based on their interests. 

These trends have forced many members of the newsmedia to package their content not as news, but as entertainment in order to even compete with sensationalistic third-party startups. Even Donald Trump packaged his political campaign as a reality TV show, and not necessarily as a professional shoot for the presidency. This is because we are becoming less and less consumers of information, and more and more consumers of entertainment — and we are not better off for it. 

A system in which news must be packaged as entertainment can only be fought through conscious consumption of news assembled by professionals — The New York Times, or the Washington Post. You won’t always hear the news you want the way you want, and it may be inconvenient, but constant consumption of sensationalistic websites like Buzzfeed only degrade our society. 

"Your World Today" is a weekly column written by the editor-in-chief of The Slate. It represents solely the subjective opinion of the individual who wrote it. For Staff Editorial opinions, see this week's "The Slate Speaks."

Share