2 ms·
What am I supposed to think BBC wants for me (from me?) when this already-ominously-worded page popped into view with three additional scary headlines pre-loade
by Lammy 6y ago
What am I supposed to think BBC wants for me (from me?) when this already-ominously-worded page popped into view with three additional scary headlines pre-loaded in my eye-line so I've read them before I can even choose not to.
"You may also like:
- Are we on the road to civilisation collapse?
- The perils of short-termism: Civilisation’s greatest threat.
- The greatest long-term threats facing humanity."
I know even discount supermarkets put their highest-converting items at eye-level on the shelves across, so I'm sure the same considerations go into news media and the placement isn't an accident. I remember Facebook's research project inserting more-positive or more-negative stories to a person's personalized News Feed yo successfully influence their mood in that direction. The ability for Facebook or anyone to do such a study makes me pretty confident BBC could detect three "negative" wordings if they hadn't directly paid somebody to write them this way, and they could avoid say I'll "like" them so a momentary positive hits first to maximize my emotional whiplash.
- mistermann 6y agoI think what you are "supposed" to think is less important than what you (and everyone) do think, as well as what the downstream consequences are due to your consumption of this type of article, a type which we've likely all read several several instances of every day for years on end.