AAN Association of Alternative Newsmedia

The Media Oxpecker: Sideways Traffic, Embedded Content

august 23, 2012 12:00 pm

We're so future-of-news hardcore we're delivering your Friday roundup on a Thursday. Welcome to tomorrow.

Is the "Great Embeddening" upon us? The future of the internet may rely less on hyperlinks, and more on embedded content.

Where's your traffic coming from? Adrienne LaFrance reports that for some of the major national news sites like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, a majority of visitors are coming in through the side door instead of the homepage.

Lauren Kirchner took one for the team and watched 12 hours of the Huffington Post's new web TV channel, HuffPost Live. The verdict? "Spoiler alert: I do not recommend doing this."

They all specialize in "viral" content, but BuzzFeed, Digg, and Reddit have their own unique personalities:
When democracy rules, as in Reddit and Digg, (where all content is ranked by vote), viewers minds’ are filled with international news, heavily biased social commentary (feminist, pro-gay marriage), and geek pride. When Buzzfeed’s editorial eyes cover the Internet, cute animal pics, celebrity gossip, and political horse-race stories rule the front page … Reddit is a fantastic source for the personal perspectives that can get lost in the process of disinterested journalism.

"The Price of Great Journalism": How an article (and its accompanying video/photo package) covering the Syria conflict convinced Abu Muqawama that the New York Times was worth paying for.