As the newspaper business model heads south, though, we've been subjected to the rise of what we might christen the "trollumnist" — the writer who simply "trolls" in a multichannel, multimedia environment. And the erstwhile self-identification of papers like the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian as quality outlets matters little in the attention economy: on the internet, no one knows you're a broadsheet. Whereas a true columnist might make controversial arguments or challenge common sense, trollumnists merely provoke outrage in order to sell papers, draw links and capture increasingly scarce reader attention. The beauty of it all is that it doesn't take much training to do it, and as media content goes, it's cheap as chips. Any fool can offend people given a reasonably prominent platform.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
New Matilda vs Miranda
Nicely said from New Matilda:
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2 comments:
I've often wondered about trying to get an anti-Miranda piece published except rather than eloquant argument which this author has chosen, go the Devine route and attempt to get a baying slavering lynch-mob assembled outside her door at 3 in the morning, burning torches, that kind of stuff.
The herald just gets worse, today they've reproduced a Charlie Brooker piece from the Guardian from about 6 weeks ago, except they've edited it, and not particularly skillfully either, the man's a comic genius (ok that could be debated) and they've got the timerity to butcher his work. Grrr
I'm Happy to Carry a Pitch Fork at 3am Jules could be quiet fun really, we could make a night of it, Anyone knows where Piers Ackerman lives when he has removed him self from John Howard's arse?
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