Please! Abolish the Web's evil page-view count
MarketWatch's Jon Friedman argues for abolishing most popular lists online:
Just because a news organization can show which stories are most popular, does the practice serve a purpose for society when we publish the Internet's equivalent of television network ratings? What good does it do? Do we benefit from the reinforcement that we're a nation of gossipmongers and dummies?The worst aspect to these lists is the fear that journalists, trying to win favor with their business-conscious editors, will lower their standards and write top-40 stories instead of pieces with actual depth.
There is also the grim possibility that some editors, who would like to goose their operations' page-view counts, will gravitate toward publishing puffy human-interest or gossipy stories instead of hard news.
Nov 06, 2007 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT
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3 comments about 'Please! Abolish the Web's evil page-view count'Another self-appointed altruist masquerading as a journalist.
Translation of his article: you are dumb, I am smart; you don't read my crap, I don't like it; i am smart and must fix dumb people like you.
Problem with his "real news" not being read is that reading the "real news" in most papers is the same story repeated ad nauseam. Most are nothing more than ad hominem attacks pretending to be news. Any wonder nobody reads that depressing crap? No.
EX. Iraq = Bush lied, people died. Military is evil, liberals good. Surrender is our only option. Nothing else, no truth, no honesty, no reporting of anything that really happening now, or what would happen if we left. Just propaganda.
Posted by Mark L. Jackson at November 9, 2007 11:42 AM
This is why the news media is suffering. We think our opinions matter more than the community's opinions.
Posted by Jon Donley at November 9, 2007 11:49 AM
I agree that the top viewed story list is a great way to see what the community is wanting to read. It's a good way to see what headlines are working well, and what content people want. It is also a good way for people to serendipitously find content they might find interesting, and increasing traffic and stay time on the site.
The agony of these lists is that if you give people a list of 5 stories: 4 are pretty good things people in the community should care about, and 1 is a story on Paris Hilton, you know which one is going to be clicked on the most.
Posted by Rhett Nelson at November 9, 2007 8:12 PM
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