Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

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Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator Page 25

by Ryan Holiday


  Pawlenty campaign, 12, 14–16

  reader addiction, exploitation of, 140–41

  Santelli’s rant, posting, 66–68

  self-interested coverage, 190–94

  Sherrod (Shirley) resignation, 134–38

  snark, 197–205

  Toyota fiasco, 189

  and trading up the chain, 28–29, 146–49

  unreality, perpetuation of, 216–21

  user addiction, 140–44

  Wikipedia, false information, 54–55, 152

  Bloody Disgusting, 37

  Blumenthal, Sidney, 179

  BNET, 116–17

  BoingBoing, 19

  Boorstin, Daniel, 187, 217, 219

  Brand Channel, 180

  bribes, indirect, to bloggers, 42–47

  Brietbart, Andrew, 134–38

  Brin, Sergey, 153

  Business Insider, 13

  blogger compensation method, 43

  factual errors, defending, 181, 219

  misinformation, encouraging, 219–20

  Paterson (David) resignation rumor, 168–70

  perks accepted by, 45

  BusinessWeek, 189, 233

  BuzzFeed, 13, 62, 102, 190

  Cain, Herman, 16

  Calacanis, Jason, 35

  Campbell, W. J., 79

  Card, Orson Scott, 101

  Carey, Drew, 180

  Carmon, Irin, 123, 125–32

  Carr, David, 87

  Chamfort, Nicolas, 98

  Chandler, Raymond, 75, 82

  Charney, Dov, 117, 169, 201, 209, 210–11. See also American Apparel

  Cheezburger Network, 142

  Cheney, Dick, 221

  Chicago Tribune, 111

  Chomsky, Noam, 82

  Christian Science Monitor, 96

  Churchill, Winston, 6

  Cicero, 165

  Cityfile, 38

  Classifieds section, 77n

  Clinton, Bill, 163, 179

  CNBC, Santelli’s rant, posting, 66–68

  Coen, Jessica, 165

  Comments section

  silence, problem of, 101–3, 144

  traffic/pageviews as goal, 72–74

  compensation methods, for bloggers, 42–44

  conferences, blog-sponsored, 191–92

  conflicts of interest, 37–38, 47

  Consumerist, 162

  content production. See stories/information

  controversy, and virality, 65–66

  Cook, John, 46

  Cooley, Charles Horton, 117–18

  Cooper, James Fennimore, 140

  Cooperman, Kahane, 129

  corrections, nonexistence of, 129–30, 178–86

  Couric, Katie, 23

  Cowen, Tyler, 57–58, 233

  Cox, Ana Marie, 46

  Cracked.com, 142

  Craggs, Tommy, 166

  Crain’s New York, 151

  Cruise, Tom, 34

  CrunchFund, 38

  Crushable.com, 36

  Curbed Los Angeles, 23–24

  Curtis, Drew, 21–22, 113

  Cut, The, 151

  Daily Beast, The, 36, 170

  Daily Dish, 35–36

  Daily Finance, 151

  Daily Intel, 170

  Daily Show, The, sexism accusation, 128–31

  Dana, Charles A., 217

  Danone, 159

  Daulerio, A. J., 7

  Day, Benjamin, 77, 79

  DeadlineHollywood, 198

  Deadspin, 7, 166, 201

  de Botton Alain, 213

  Degradation Ceremony, by blogs, 208–13

  Demand Media, 44, 96, 142–43

  Denby, David, 197

  Denton, Nick

  conflicts of interest, profiting from, 38

  on Daily Show sexism story, 128

  on fake news, 230–31

  and iterative journalism, 165, 169

  on length of stories, 109

  on manipulating readers, 70

  on pseudo-exclusive, 34

  See also Gawker

  Descartes, 145

  Detroit, in ruins slideshow, 60–63, 68

  Digg, 22

  digital sweatshop, 47

  Dish, The, 35–36

  Drudge, Matt, 179

  Drudge Report, 13, 67, 134n, 179

  Dunn, Ryan, 204

  Eater LA, 172

  Ebert, Roger, 204

  Ebner, Mark, 34

  Edwards, Jim, 116–19

  election cycle, manufactured by blogs, 14–15

  Ellsberg, Daniel, 91

  emotions, relationship to virality, 63–68

  Ender’s Game (Card), 101

  Engadget, 35, 42, 103, 108

  entry point, in newsmaking chain, 21, 24

  Epstein, Edward Jay, 50

  Examiner.com, 44

  exclusives

  importance of, 34n, 115

  and traffic-generation, 34–35

  FailDogs.com, 142

  false statements, loaded-question headlines, 70–71

  Fark.com, 113

  FastCompany.com, 192

  Favre, Brett, 26–27

  Ferris, Tim, 59

  FFFFound! 19

  Filter Bubble, The (Pariser), 82

  Finke, Nikki, 198, 202–3

  Fischer, Renato, 159

  FishbowlLA, 23–24

  FiveThirtyEight.com, 36

  Flipboard, 53

  Ford, Andrew, 28–29

  Ford, Henry, 104

  Freakonomics, 36

  Frovocation (faux provocation), 24

  Fuller, Jack, 111

  fund-raising, by trading up the chain, 18–19

  Gateway Pundit, 134n

  Gawker

  on Assange, 209–11

  bloggers, compensation methods, 42–43

  Douch of the Decade poll, 203n

  Fleshbot Awards hypocrisy, 201

  leaks, deliberate to, 51

  on media ethics, 47

  popularity of, 23, 25

  stolen e-mail, publishing, 5–6

  traffic analysis, 97

  traffic-generating scoops, 34–35

  See also Denton, Nick

  Gibson, Mel, 33

  GigaOM, 108

  Gizmodo, 35, 108

  TheGloss.com, 36

  Google

  blogger compensation method, 44

  credibility of story, criteria for, 153

  privacy warnings threat, 158–59

  Google News, stories, journey of, 92

  Google Trends, 96

  gossip blogs, 26–27

  Gould, Emily, 131

  Grantham, Christian, 28n

  Greek tragedy, function of, 213

  Greeley, Horace, 77

  Greenblatt, Richard, 73n

  Guardian, The, 152, 212

  Gurry, Lisa, 191

  Hall, Justin, 107

  HARO (Help a Reporter Out), 55–57

  free publicity for, 55–56

  manipulating with bogus story, 55–56

  misuse by journalists, 56–57

  Hazlitt, William, 195, 209

  headlines, 88–93

  blogs, goals of, 92–93

  loaded-question as, 70–71

  misleading/fake, 89, 91, 92, 93, 129

  of subscription model, 90–91

  writing, difficulty of, 88

  and Yellow Press, 88–90

  Hearst, William Randolph, 80, 88

  Hedges, Chris, 67

  Help Wanted, 77n

  Hesiod, 175

  Hilton, Perez, 34, 150

  Hippeau, Eric, 188

  Hot Air, 134n

  Huffington, Arianna, 36–37, 93

  Huffington Post

  AOL purchase of, 36–37

  articles, monetary worth of, 44–45

  articles, rating to score pageviews, 72–73

  Complete Guide to Blogging, 108

  Detroit in ruins slideshow, 61–63, 68

  format/length of stories, 108–9

&n
bsp; headlines, style of, 93

  local stories, 18

  paid versus unpaid articles comments, 102–3

  PR crisis, 188–89

  success of, 36

  Super Bowl start time story, 100

  I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (film), outrage campaign, creating, 1–2, 23–24, 44

  industry expert, creating by blog, 55–56

  investment sites, press releases, use of, 52

  iterative journalism, 166–86

  corrections, nonexistence of, 178–86

  failure of, 183–86

  features of, 167–69

  toxicity of, 169–75, 179

  Jackson, Michael, 33

  Jarre, Maurice, 152–53

  Jarvis, Jeff, 143–44, 150, 167, 175

  Jay, Ricky, 90

  Jenkins, Henry, 60

  Jezebel, 19, 109

  American Apparel hazardous nail polish story, 125–32

  Daily Show, The, sexism story, 128–31

  headlines, fake, 91

  Jobs, Steve, 169

  Jones, Terry, 28–29

  journalism/journalists. See newspapers

  Joystiq, 35

  Juvenal, 74

  Kennedy, John F., 33

  Kickstarter, 18

  Know Your Meme, 37

  Kramer, Staci, 191

  LAist, 46

  Laughing Squid, 19

  Lazarsfeld, Paul, 144

  leaks, 50–51

  dangers of, 51

  Pentagon Papers, 91

  legacy media, in newsmaking chain, 21–22, 24–25

  length, of blog stories, 106–12

  Levin, Harvey, 33

  Lewis, Jerry, 198

  Lifehacker, 109

  link economy, 150–56

  Linkin Park, 44

  http://ryanholiday.net/reading-list, 107–8

  Lippman, Walter, 215, 221

  Livestrong.com, 142

  local news, in newsmaking chain, 21–22

  McBride, Kelly, 49

  McCarthy, Caroline, 46

  McCarthy, Eugene, 153

  McCarthy, Megan, 182

  McCarthy, Ryan, 31

  McLuhan, Marshall, 106

  MacRumors.com, 169

  Making It in the Political Blogosphere (Yglesias), 140

  Malcolm, Andrew, 92

  Malik, Om, 108

  Malone, Noreen, 61–62

  manipulating bloggers

  angle-hunting/made-up stories, 114–19

  author’s experience with, 1–6

  bribes, indirect, 42–47

  format/length of stories, 106–12

  headlines, deceptive, 88–93

  information, handing to, 50–58

  One-Off Problem, exploiting, 82–85

  pageview journalism, 96–104

  to trick readers, 70–74

  virality, creating, 60–68

  Marginal Revolution, 57–58

  Marlowe, Philip, 82

  Mashable, 42, 103, 190–91

  mass media

  bloggers, getting jobs at, 45–46

  blogs bought by, 35–37

  reputation, importance to, 35

  types of, 21

  See also newsmaking; newspapers; trading up the chain

  Max, Tucker, 201

  movie, outrage campaign for, 1–2, 23–24, 44

  Mediabistro, 23, 25, 115

  Media Decoder, 192

  MediaElites, 208

  Media manipulation, and blogs/bloggers. See blog toxicity; manipulating bloggers; stories/information

  Mendelson, Brandon, 100

  Merton, Robert, 144

  metrics, 96–104

  and buying traffic, 99–100

  pageview statistics, 96–98

  pseudo-metrics, types of, 99

  Mill, John Stuart, 41

  modern press (by subscription), 80–82

  Montaigne, 207

  Morozov, Evgeny, 173

  Moss, Randy, 174

  Most E-mailed list, 68, 96

  Most Popular Articles, 69, 96

  Motolese, Fernando, 159

  Moylan, Brian, 70

  Munsterberg, Hugo, 113

  narcotizing dysfunction, 144

  national media. See mass media

  negative information, and virality, 64, 66–68

  Net Delusion, The (Morozov), 173

  New Orleans Times-Picayune, 82

  News aggregators, 21

  NewsGator, 83

  newsmaking, 18–29

  entry point, 21, 24

  legacy media in, 21–22, 24–25

  mass media in, 22–26

  newswires, blogs as, 12

  See also stories/information; trading up the chain

  newspapers

  blogs, influence on, 20–23, 25n

  Modern Press (by subscription), 80–82

  One-Off Problem, 78–80

  Party Press, 76–77

  Yellow Press, 77–80

  newswires, 12

  New York Evening Journal, 88

  New York Herald, 78, 79

  New York Sun, 77

  New York Times

  and angle of story, 114–15

  blogs purchased by, 36

  Michigan Central Station slideshow, 62n

  Most E-mailed list, 68, 96–97

  Most Popular Articles, 69, 96–97

  pay wall, 233

  Pentagon Papers leak, 91

  subscription model, history of, 80–81

  Nielsen, Jakob, 110

  Nolan, Hamilton, 47

  Nyhan, Brendan, 183

  Obama, Barack, 160n, 163, 171, 198

  Ochs, Adolph S., 80–81, 233

  O’Donnell, Christine, 116

  O’Keefe, James, 136–38

  One-Off Problem

  and blogs, 82–85

  and Yellow Press, 78–80

  Orlean, Susan, 97–98

  Orlin, John, 165, 177

  Outbrain, 99

  outrage

  campaign, for Tucker film, 1–2, 23–24

  relationship to virality, 63–68

  Overstock.com, 162–63

  Owyang, Jeremiah, 157

  Page, Larry, 153

  pageviews

  blogger compensation based on, 42–44

  as blogger’s goal, 108

  increasing with user engagement, 71–73

  and revenues, 32–33

  traffic-generating scoops, 33–35

  pageview statistics, 96–104

  as determiner of content, 97–98, 100, 142–43

  Gawker method, 97

  paid verus unpaid articles, comments for, 102–3

  silence, problem of, 101–3, 144

  Warnock’s Dilemma, 101–2

  paid articles, and comments generation, 102–3

  PandoDaily, 115

  Pariser, Eli, 82

  Park, Robert E., 183, 217

  Parr, Ben, 42

  Party Press, 76–77

  Paterson, David, 168–70

  Pawlenty, Tim, Politico coverage, 12, 14–16

  Pentagon Papers, 91

  Peretti, Jonah, 62, 102

  Pierce, Tony, 46

  Pitchfork, 203

  political blogs

  campaign coverage, cycle of, 15

  candidates, creating and destroying, 14–16

  election cycle, manufacturing of, 14–15

  negative impact of. see blog toxicity

  political newspapers, 76–77

  Politico, Tim Pawlenty coverage, 12, 14–16

  Postman, Neil, 230–31

  press releases, 51–52

  PRWeb, 52

  pseudo-exclusive, 34

  Pulitzer, Joseph, 78, 80

  Quickish, 27n

  quotes out of context, 26–27

  Racked NY, 110, 151

  Rao, Venkatesh, 73

  reality, unreality, perpetuation by blogs, 216–21

  Reddit, 19, 22

  Reifler, Jason, 183

&
nbsp; Religion News Service, 28

  reputation

  blackmail tactics by blogs, 159–64

  blogs, name-building process, 35–36

  as mass media concern, 35

  and subscription model, 80–82

  reputation-management services, 161–62

  Reuters, 184n

  revenues

  from advertisements, 32–33

  conflicts of interest, profiting from, 37–38

  metrics, use to boost, 96–104

  no reader response problem, 101–2

  paid versus unpaid article comments, 102–3

  from sale of blog, 36–37

  from traffic, 32–35

  YouTube Partner Program, 141

  Richards, Michael, 33

  Rihanna, 33

  Roberts, Roxanne, 177

  Robertson, Lindsay, 19

  Rojas, Pete, 35

  Rosenberg, Scott, 107

  RSS readers, decline of, 82–85

  rumors

  as fake news, 26–27

  and iterative journalism, 169–75, 182

  Rutten, Tim, 31

  Salon.com, 96, 132

  Samsung, blogger, perks to, 45

  Santelli, Rick, 66–68

  Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters (Rosenberg), 107

  Schmidt, Eric, 92

  Schulberg, Budd, 6

  Schulz, Kathryn, 155

  Scoble, Robert, 53

  scoops, blog money-making from, 33–35

  Seeking Alpha, 43, 167

  Shafer, Jake, 24

  Shankman, Peter, 55

  Sherrod, Shirley, 134–38

  Sicha, Choire, 133

  Siegler, MG, 115–16

  Silicon Alley Insider, 169

  Silver, Nate, 36, 44, 102

  Sinclair, Upton, 88, 177, 184

  Sitrick, Michael, 26

  Slashfood, 42

  slideshows, Detroit in ruins, 60–63, 68

  snark, 197–205

  defined, 197–98

  examples of, 198–200

  rationale for, 201–5

  toxicity of, 199–202, 204–5

  Snyder, Gabriel, 88

  Solis, Brian, 172

  Sorkin, Andrew, 149

  Sound and Fury: The Making of Punditocracy (Alterman), 106

  sources, 50–58

  checking by bloggers, lack of, 53–54

  checking by journalists, lack of, 24n, 50

  HARO (Help a Reporter Out), 55–57

  journalists’ relationship with, 50

  leaks, deliberate, 50–51

  link economy, 150–56

  press releases, 51–52

  Wikipedia as, 54–55

  Spiers, Elizabeth, 36

  Sternbergh, Adam, 200

  stories/information, 50–58

  ads as content, 190–91

  angle-hunting/made-up stories, 114–19

  blog-sponsored conferences, 191–92

  content production, pressure for, 20, 26, 44, 96–98

  coverage about coverage, 192–93

  format/length of stories, 106–12

  headlines, 88–93

  one-off stories, 82–85

  sources, 50–58

  traffic/pageviews as goal, 33, 73, 96, 99, 108

  user engagement, 72–74

  user engagement, necessity of, 101–3, 144

  virality, creating, 60–68

  Strauss, Neil, 95

 

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