Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator (46 page)

2
. Noreen Malone, “The Case Against Economic Disaster Porn,” last modified January 22, 2011,
http://www.tnr.com/article/metro-policy/81954/Detroit-economic-disaster-porn
.

3
. Adrianne Jeffries, “Interview With Jonah Peretti, on BuzzFeed’s Move Into News,” last modified January 18, 2012,
http://www.betabeat.com/2012/01/18/interview-with-jonah-peretti-on-buzzfeeds-move-into-news
.

4
. Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, “What Makes Content Viral?” 2011, Wharton School.

5
. Annie Lang, “Negative Video as Structure: Emotion, Attention, Capacity and Memory,”
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts
(Fall 1996): 460.

VII: TACTIC #4: HELP THEM TRICK THEIR READERS

1
. Venkatesh Rao, “The Greasy, Fix-It ‘Web of Intent’ Vision,” last modified August 17, 2010,
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/08/17/the-greasy-fix-it-web-of-intent-vision/
.

VIII: TACTIC #5: SELL THEM SOMETHING THEY CAN SELL (EXPLOIT THE ONE-OFF PROBLEM)

1
. Jacqui Cheng, “Why Keeping Up with RSS Is Poisonous to Productivity, Sanity,”
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/09/why-keeping-up-with-rss-is-poisonous-to-productivity-sanity.ars
.

IX: TACTIC #6: MAKE IT ALL ABOUT THE HEADLINE

1
. Kenneth Whyte,
The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst.
Berkeley, Cal.: Counterpoint, 2009.

2
. Upton Sinclair,
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism
. Champaign, Il.: University of Illinois Press, 1919.

3
. Jenna Sauers, “American Apparel’s Rejected Halloween Costume Ideas,” last modified October 18, 2010,
http://Jezebel.com/5666842/exclusive-american-apparels-rejected-halloween-costume-idea
.

4
. Eric Schmidt, “How Google Can Help Newspapers,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 1, 2009,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574569570797550520.html
.

5
. Carr, “Taylor Momsen,”
New York Times
.

6
. E. B. Boyd, “Brains and Bots Deep Inside Yahoo’s CORE Grab a Billion Clicks,”
Fast Company
, August 1, 2011,
http://www.fastcompany.com/1770673/how-yahoo-got-to-a-billion-clicks
.

X: TACTIC #7: KILL ’EM WITH PAGEVIEW KINDNESS

1
.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-aol-way#-17
.

2
.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/susanorlean/2.html
.

3
. Brandon Mendelson, “Mashable Continues to Cash In on Death,” last modified September 6, 2011,
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/mashable-continues-cash-death-173201323.html
.

4
. Bryan C. Warnock, “Re: RFCs: Two Proposals for Change,” last modified August 7, 2000,
http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.bootstrap/2000/08/msg1127.html
.

5
. Nate Silver, “The Economics of Blogging and the Huffington Post,” last modified February 12, 2011,
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/the-economics-of-blogging-and-the-huffington-post
.

XI: TACTIC #8: USE THE TECHNOLOGY AGAINST ITSELF

1
. Justin Hall, last modified January 10, 1996,
http://links.net/daze/96/01/10
.

2
. “The Gawker Job Interview,” last modified January 12, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/fashion/13gweb.html
.

3
. S. Kim, “Content Analysis of Cancer Blog Posts,”
Journal of the Medical Library Association
(October 2009) 97: 260–66.

4
. Jakob Nielsen, “Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy,” last modified November 12, 2007,
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html
.

5
. Jack Fuller, “Public Inauthenticity: a Crisis of Falling Expectations,” May 12, 1999,
http://newsombudsmen.org/fuller.html
.

XII: TACTIC #9: JUST MAKE STUFF UP (EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT)

1
. “Seeing Non-existent Things,”
Washington Post
, June 18, 1899, accessed July 30, 2011, ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

2
. Meranda Watling, “Where to Find Original, Local Story Ideas Online,” last modified May 31, 2011,
http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/where-to-find-original-local-story-ideas-online_b4352
.

3
. MG Siegler, “Content Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink,” February 12, 2012,
http://parislemon.com/post/17527312140/content-everywhere-but-not-a-drop-to-drink
.

4
. Maysa Rawi, “Has American Apparel Gone Too Far with ‘Creepy’ Controversial New Campaign?” last modified January 11, 2011,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fe-mail/article-1346138/Has-American-Apparel-gone-far-creepy-controversial-new-campaign.html
.

5
. Nate Freeman, “Gawker Editor Remy Stern Talks Approach to O’Donnell Story,” last modified October 28, 2010,
http://www.observer.com/2010/media/gawker-editor-remy-stern-approach-odonnell-story?utm_medium=partial-text&utm_campaign=media
.

XIII: IRIN CARMON,
THE DAILY SHOW
, AND ME: THE PERFECT STORM OF HOW TOXIC BLOGGING CAN BE

1
. Irin Carmon, “
The Daily Show
’s Woman Problem,” last modified June 23, 2010,
http://Jezebel.com/5570545
.

2
. Jennifer Mascia, “A Web Site That’s Not Afraid to Pick a Fight,”
New York Times
, July 11, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/business/media/12Jezebel.html
.

3
. “Women of
The Daily Show
Speak,”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/message
.

4
. Dave Itzkoff, “‘The Daily Show’ Women Say the Staff Isn’t Sexist,”
New York Times
, July 6, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/arts/television/07daily.html
.

5
. Irin Carmon, “5 Unconvincing Excuses For Daily Show Sexism,” last modified June 24, 2010,
http://Jezebel.com/5571826/5-unconvincing-excuses-for-daily-show-sexism
.

6
. Irin Carmon, “Female Employees of the Daily Show Speak Out,”
http://Jezebel.com/5580512/female-employees-of-the-daily-show-speak-out
.

7
. Emily Gould, “Outrage World,” last modified July 6, 2010,
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2010/07/outrage_world.html
.

8
. Irin Carmon, “Judd Apatow Defends His Record On Female Characters,” last modified November 10, 2010,
http://Jezebel.com/5686517/judd-apatow-defends-his-record-on-female-characters
.

XV: CUTE BUT EVIL: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT TACTICS THAT DRUG YOU AND ME

1
. Peter Kafka, “YouTube Steps Closer to Your TV With ‘Leanback,’” last modified July 7, 2010,
http://allthingsd.com/20100707/youtube-steps-closer-to-your-tv-with-leanback
.

2
. Tamar Lewin, “If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online,”
New York Times
, January 20, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html
; “Social Media Report: Q3 2011,”
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social
.

3
. Ricky Link, “Demand Meda—Breaking the Bank,” access date January 17, 2012,
http://www.onlinemba.com/demand-media-breaking-the-bank
.

4
. Sean Blanda, “Back to the Drawing Board,” last modified March 10, 2010,
http://emediavitals.com/blog/16/back-drawing-board
.

5
. Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton, “Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action,”
The Communication of Ideas
(1948).

XVI: THE LINK ECONOMY: THE LEVERAGED ILLUSION OF SOURCING

1
. Mark Schneider, “Delegating Trust: An Argument for an ‘Ingredients Label’ for News Products,” October 2005,
http://journalismethics.info/online_journalism_ethics/index.htm
.

2
. Adrianne Pasquarelli, “American Apparel Likely to Shed Some NY Stores,” last modified August 18, 2010,
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100818/REAL_ESTATE/100819812
; Mercedes Cardona, “10 Big Retailers Closing Stores,” last modified August 20, 2010,
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/08/20/10-big-retailers-closing-stores
.

3
. Shawn Pogatchnik, “Student Hoaxes World’s Media on Wikipedia,” last updated May 12, 2009,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30699302/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/student-hoaxes-worlds-media-wikipedia/#.Tz7D1iOHeYc
.

XVII: EXTORTION VIA THE WEB: FACING THE ONLINE SHAKEDOWN

1
. Antonio Regalado, “Guerrilla Webfare,”
Technology Review
(2010),
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/26281
.

2
. Michael Arrington, “Why We Often Blindside Companies,” last modified June 20, 2011,
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/why-we-often-blindside-companies
.

3
. Tom Mulraney, “An Open Letter to the Luxury Watch Industry—Help Us, Help You,” last modified November 13, 2010,
http://thewatchlounge.com/an-open-letter-to-the-luxury-watch-industry-%E2%80%93-help-us-help-you
.

XVIII: THE ITERATIVE HUSTLE: ONLINE JOURNALISM’S BOGUS PHILOSOPHY

1
. Erik Wemple, “Joe Paterno Dies On Sunday, Not Saturday,” last modified January 22, 2012,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/joe-paterno-dies-on-sunday-not-saturday/2012/01/22/gIQATznwIQ_blog.html
.

2
. David Sternman, “American Apparel: In Deep Trouble,” last modified January 12, 2012,
http://seekingalpha.com/article/319135-american-apparel-in-deep-trouble
; John Biggs, “Paypal Shreds Ostensibly Rare Violin Because It Cares,” last modified January 4, 2012,
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/04/paypal-shreds-ostensibly-rare-violin-because-it-cares
.

3
. Joe Weisenthal, “NYT’s Big David Paterson Bombshell Will Break Monday, Governor’s Resignation to Follow,” last modified February 7, 2010,
http://www.businessinsider.com/source-nyts-david-paterson-bombshell-to-break-tomorrow-governors-resignation-to-follow-2010-2
; Joe Weisenthal, “SOURCE: The NYT’s Big David Paterson Bombshell Will Break Soon, Governor’s Office Denies Resignation In Works*,” last modified February 7, 2010,
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-02-07/news/29968588_1_governor-paterson-david-paterson-resignation
.

4
. Henry Blodget, “Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report: ‘It Is Not True,’” last modified October 3, 2008,
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/10/apple-s-steve-jobs-rushed-to-er-after-heart-attack-says-cnn-citizen-journalist
.