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> 1) There's an irony that Vox of all companies is complaining that Facebook rewards click bait and punishes thoughtful pieces that require time to read and dig

> 1) There's an irony that Vox of all companies is complaining that Facebook rewards click bait and punishes thoughtful pieces that require time to read and digest. Yeah I had the same reaction. It was also somewhat rich that they cited a BuzzFeed article as evidence people are gaming our predilections for clickbait. Though, now that I think about it since it is clickbait, BuzzFeed would certainly be an expert there. And in a way, Vox also takes advantage of it. Here's a short selection of my favorite "Vox [explains x] in [<=500 words]" pieces. http://www.vox.com/2016/8/29/12692546/obamacare-whats-wrong http://www.vox.com/2016/8/29/12692546/obamacare-whats-wrong http://www.vox.com/2016/7/15/12204172/turkey-coup-erdogan-military http://www.vox.com/2016/7/15/12204172/turkey-coup-erdogan-mi... http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/10/4/13155916/2016-nobel-prize-physics http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/10/4/13155916/201... http://www.vox.com/2016/9/7/12817566/donald-trump-immigration-position http://www.vox.com/2016/9/7/12817566/donald-trump-immigratio... Last one for kicks. To be fair to Vox, they do produce some long-form stuff and often link it at the bottom of these shorter pieces, but these explainers are not helpful and, I think, produce a rather shallow understanding of extremely complex issues.

scarmig 10y ago
The ideal article for Vox to write on these lines would actually be something like "don't expect to get any meaningful understanding of issues from articles that go viral through Facebook or other social media, and wait at least a couple months or years until a current event has played out so you have enough context and expert analysis on it to come to an informed opinion." Unfortunately, that'd sort of undermine their entire business model.
- majewsky 10y ago
  You don't have to wait months or years. I've moved most of my media consumption from daily news broadcasts to a single weekly newspaper, which to me provides the most adequate balance between currentness and classification/interpretation.
  - bogomipz 10y ago
    I do similar via The Economist, may I ask what source you have found that you feel serves you on a weekly basis?
    - majewsky 10y ago
      I'm subscribed to "der Freitag", a German weekly leaning on the left side, but with a healthy amount of internal debate. http://www.freitag.de http://www.freitag.de
majewsky 10y ago
I got curious and read through these "less than n-hundred words" pieces you linked, and to me, they appeared very well executed. I cannot comment on the factual correctness of domestic American politics as I'm looking at this from Europe, but at least the summary of the Turkey coup is very much on the spot. A single humanbeing cannot possibly digest long articles on every newsworthy topic. Therefore the short form is an important staple of news coverage. Of course you will be left with a "rather shallow understanding of extremely complex issues", but the point is that you are made aware that the issue exists at all.

scarmig 10y ago

The ideal article for Vox to write on these lines would actually be something like "don't expect to get any meaningful understanding of issues from articles that go viral through Facebook or other social media, and wait at least a couple months or years until a current event has played out so you have enough context and expert analysis on it to come to an informed opinion." Unfortunately, that'd sort of undermine their entire business model.

majewsky 10y ago
You don't have to wait months or years. I've moved most of my media consumption from daily news broadcasts to a single weekly newspaper, which to me provides the most adequate balance between currentness and classification/interpretation.
- bogomipz 10y ago
  I do similar via The Economist, may I ask what source you have found that you feel serves you on a weekly basis?
  - majewsky 10y ago
    I'm subscribed to "der Freitag", a German weekly leaning on the left side, but with a healthy amount of internal debate. http://www.freitag.de http://www.freitag.de

majewsky 10y ago

I got curious and read through these "less than n-hundred words" pieces you linked, and to me, they appeared very well executed. I cannot comment on the factual correctness of domestic American politics as I'm looking at this from Europe, but at least the summary of the Turkey coup is very much on the spot. A single humanbeing cannot possibly digest long articles on every newsworthy topic. Therefore the short form is an important staple of news coverage. Of course you will be left with a "rather shallow understanding of extremely complex issues", but the point is that you are made aware that the issue exists at all.