Sometimes I actually feel sorry for old media. Blogs are taking all the page views and don’t have the massive cost overhead of newspapers and magazines. AOL is gobbling up magazine and other media writers by the hundreds.
And today I see this article talking about Google News Spotlight, which focuses on that supposedly last bastion of old media – investigative journalism. The stuff that’s “too hard” for blogs to do. But in a world where old media can’t keep up with breaking news, presumably longer investigative articles can be their safe place:
The Spotlight section of Google News is updated periodically with news and in-depth pieces of lasting value. These stories, which are automatically selected by our computer algorithms, include investigative journalism, opinion pieces, special-interest articles, and other stories of enduring appeal.
And what’s a good example of a special-interest article with “enduring appeal?” The Onion, a satire website which is currently the top story on Spotlight. This article beats out everything else that old media investigative journalism can muster right now.
It’s just too bad Google News isn’t linking to the Daily Show yet.
HAH. Instant classic. @newspapers your medium is dying.
Boy I can’t wait until I get all my news from dudes with blogs!
A good number of news outlets feature blogs from their journalists. So what you’re saying is already happening. Thanks for reminding us all that the change is already underway.
Reading blogs written by journalists = ok. Reading blogs for news written by any idiot with a computer, not so much. Besides, all this proves is that Google isn’t reading the articles it posts, or even vetting them, which is exactly the problem with internet “news” sources.
are you claiming that “journalist” != “idiot with a computer”? ’cause i think there’s a substantial bit of overlap there….
Congrats Onion. The invests in investigative journalism lifts Onion to the top position in premium news providers list. Hope now Google would have initiated their moves towards improvising Google News.
is that Comic Sans?
i really like that font.
I’ll buy you a kitten if you change the Techcrunch header logo to Comic Sans for a day.
we can do that. how about you agree to rescue a kitten and give it a good home? a good home that isn’t my home bc I hate cats. I tend to kick them.
actually, my dad lives in southern spain [Almeria] and last week found a stray puppy on his drive way. He posted an advert online offering it to a good home and a lady in Belgium said she’d take it if he delivered it – so he spent a fortune on vets bills and drove all the way to Belgium to deliver it.
true story. but we can probably find an appropriate home for a kitten too.
Actually I just this weekend rescued a kitten and gave it to a good home, no kidding. I went and got it milk, lured it out from the bush it was crying in and, after deliberating about keeping him myself, found a friend who is cuddling said kitten right now.
Cough it up, Arrington.
You gotta love The Onion
Well in all fairness…. The Onion is the shiznick!!!!
Sorry to be a hater, but the proper spelling is “shiznit”. It’s a slang variation on the American swear word “shit”.
I agree with your sentiment, unless you happened to be comparing them to the shaving company–which should be spelled, “schiznick”.
For more context on this linguistic innovation of musical artist Snoop Dogg, you can see his music video on YouTube:
http://www.yout...h?v=qM4jmjhYH_I
American swear word? The word shit dates back to western Europe the middle ages, LONG before the United States was discovered..
Discovered??? I’ll have you know that the United States of America is exactly as the Good LORD created it, 6000 years ago (and one week).
Hallelujah beetlecat!! Bet those Bible writers feel like damn fools now, talkin’ about 4,000 years an’ all.
Or America in general, for that matter.
nah, that’s shite.
(this comment can be taken multiple ways. am i saying your argument is shite, or the word you refer to is shite? anyone’s guess. also, i’ve never heard of this country of which you speak, “western europe the middle ages.” sounds more like a game title, really…
“Coming soon from Capcom!!! WESTERN EUROPE: The Middle Ages.”
Snoop didn’t invent that style, he just stole it and popularized it to the masses.
I read the Onion far more than “regular” news – their consistent excellence blows me away. Thanks for this piece
Well, The Onion *is* “America’s Finest News Source”, after all.
No other paper I’ve ever read so consistently and often frighteningly has its finger on the pulse of what’s actually happening in this country.
Read more.
I live in Chicago. You could swap a story between the Onion and the Sun Times and never know the difference.
(This is less the Sun Times fault and more that our politicians act like they are on the “Real World: Chicago Politics” reality show.)
I would argue the barrier between satirical articles and real ones is unclear, and their bias’ may be equal in weight. At least with the Onion you have a clear idea of their presuppositions, whereas they are hidden in a “real” newspaper.
Too true.
But we also have to remember that even the Onion has its political bias.
The names and ways are changing, but the game stays the same. You have to keep a level head about events, and know what History teaches about it.
Politics would be a much nobler line of work if they all knew a damned thing about history.
I have not read a newspaper in almost two years, this morning they delivered one to my hotel room as I was reading this blog. Right there I felt as if I was witnessing an incredible waste of resources. The web and blogs have turned the old newspaper ways obsolete, for nothing beats the depth and breath of perspective in an active blog.
I read both. I like the newspaper because it’s nice to unplug for a moment. I love the feeling of turning the page, which is not replicable online.
Nothing? How about variety of subjects? Most active blogs specialise in limited areas. Papers are a totally different paradigm in terms of browsing, and prompt wider interests. Course, you could achieve the same layout look with a blog.
Old media is dying partly because nobody wants their product. And their product is often riddled with far-left political agenda. So-called investigative journalism is particularly subject to this rampant bias.
The Chicago Sun Times is a joke of a paper. It’s written in a 3rd grade reading level.
Congrats Onion.
Whats your deal with old media? If your type of Flat Earth News is what we can expect in place of “Old Media” we’re all right f*cked!
Wow, you got a retweet from The Onion
http://twitter....atus/3742292558
That’s epic. Resume-worthy stuff.
Wait wait wait…isn’t this an example of why its BAD that Internet is taking over as the primary news source? Its automation engines can’t reliably distinguish real news from fake news.
I like the Onion and the Daily Show, but they’re not replacements for journalism. They make jokes…
As long as blog writers can do unbiased reporting as good as professional journalists without being paid, then I’m all for the new media. I just think we’re losing something in the transition.
…like proper punctuation and spelling? Literacy need not take a back seat to innovation. Unfortunately, it does seem to, when people become used to typing on a smartphone, netbook or PDA and leaving out letters or using wacky symbols for effect. But we can hope that there will continue to be a core of smart persons who can do both, switching back and forth with manic glee.
More caffeine and sugar for the journalistic masses = what the nation needs for news.
The image above shows the Google listing specifically marked as “satire.”
LOL I love the onion..always makes my day.
Pretty interesting stuff.
well, of that or that the incendiary ” facebook is stupid. everyone’s leaving” essay disguised as news analysis (shown right below)… I’d agree that the google piece wins. I love reading about media and frankly love old media but… those articles make the out-of-touchness hard to ignore…
thanks for the update though. I actually didn’t know about google spotlight.
You have to remember that the internet gives voice to those who would not have been given a voice.
In the case of the onion when it was infant (I say that because it is now bigger than some regional papers in the US) and some others, this is a good thing.
Unfortunately, most blogs are written by those who would never have been employed as journalists. Even in the 18th century.
Hmm… doesn’t Google still manually add/edit/update the news sites that are then automatically scanned for news?
Or is smart enough to now search without human oversight for sites that contain ‘news’?
If so, I guess the Onion passed the equiv of the Turing test for news sites.
A historic day!
To add fuel to the …., yep, can’t wait for newspapers, books, and all public paper media to be out of print so that our benign corporate overlords can decide when to retract a digital book, or not link an online news article – or link pseudo news from sites like the Onion instead.
It’s a brave new world.
Go Onion!
cow