A "Newspaper" Wasteland

 Over the past two decades, newspapers have seen a staggering drop in production. The rise of quicker (and less expensive) forms of news have bulldozed the need to rely on paper-forms of information. This resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs and left a gap in the news industry that was filled by electronic news sources; unbeknownst to no one, this shift in news consumption would change the way society operated when it came to the integration of sociopolitical matters in the online landscape.

During the rise of online media outlets, the competition of publishing a top news story was fierce. This was due to the pace at which news is able to spread and the implementation of revenue gained from clicks. In "Annals of Media" by Jill Lepore, it is stated that a Times article was virtually replicated by the Huffington Post in a matter of hours; said original article, published by Times, took months of investigating and factual research in order to be posted. The rapid publication of articles is a product of the insatiable thirst for daily consumption of news from people. This thirst is thus tied back to how quickly news is seemingly pumped out through online resources. It's a harsh cycle that makes producing quality journalism harder, which then leaves the door wide open for, not just fake news, but recycled news.

Since cites often produce revenue from clicks, posting stories that rely on clicks is a big tactic. One cite that is notorious for this is BuzzFeed. According to Jill Abramson, BuzzFeed would take stories (such as the death of Trayvon Martin) and post an article with an eye catching title (i.e. "10 Reasons Everyone Should Be Furious About Trayvon Martin’s Murder") that basically recycles news from other sources. Thousands of other "news" cites adopt this way of "creating" content just so they can receive more clicks than their competitors.

Do you think that this method of journalism is killing "newpapers" (i.e. electronic forms of news that require hard work in order to produce factual stories)?

Do you think that the way we consume news is starting to become "mindless" in a sense?

Why or why not?