The trouble with online journalism

Here’s a provocative quote from a Toronto Globe and Mail column on the perils of online journalism. “When journalism becomes nothing more than digital hits, the more provocative you are—often, the more obnoxious you are—the higher the hit count,” said Richard Gruneau, a Simon Fraser University professor of popular culture and media.

In that sense, the system pressures you to become a dick. Who cares if what you say is good, let alone whether there is any truth in it or not? When everything becomes opinion, the most opinionated, most strident and least compromising “journalists” are the ones who rattle enough cages, or inspire enough like-minded devotees, to build the hit count. And if you can somehow get the people you piss off arguing with your devotees, then your hit count will really soar.