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"Second, the media will only be interested in one thing about you: controversy. Because controversy equals page views. No actual controversy? No problem; they'l
by rl3 12y ago
"Second, the media will only be interested in one thing about you: controversy. Because controversy equals page views. No actual controversy? No problem; they'll manufacture some."
Secret shut down today, and I think PandoDaily's coverage of Secret serves as a perfect example of this:
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Secret founder doesn’t care if teenagers kill themselves, as long as they don’t cause a PR headache - By Paul Carr On August 1, 2014
Secret accused of being “too busy raising money to care” about teen suicide warning - By Paul Carr On August 3, 2014
Now we’ve seen Secret’s ugly soul, will investors act? - By Sarah Lacy On August 3, 2014
With bullying app Secret on life support, investors learn the risk of investing in assholes - By Paul Carr On December 6, 2014
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Most of these headlines were complete with probably the most unflattering photos of Byttow they could find at the time.
- wpietri 12y agoThat's not a great example; Secret was legitimately controversial no matter what journalists said. A dozen people in my feeds are celebrating their shutdown.
- rl3 12y agoSecret was legitimately controversial, sure. However, those headlines (in my opinion) were chalk full of hyperbole and amounted to a campaign of vilification.
- wpietri 12y agoI don't know that I agree, but hyperbolic headlines and vilification are different than manufactured controversy. The difference being that with the latter there's no sincerity.
- rl3 12y agoI would argue that using such tactics to inflame an existing controversy constitutes the same thing, at least in spirit. The notion of sincerity is nullified by the conflict of interest inherent to page views.
- wpietri 12y agoNot at all. Plenty of people were "inflaming" that controversy with no motive at all other than thinking Secret legitimately horrible. For it to be the same in spirit, the writer has to actually have the same spirit, a mendacious one. That is so far undemonstrated here.