These days, I think people in traditional media outlets are writing stories just so they'll get linked on particular blogs.
John Cook trumping up a fuss in Slate about Sasha and Jessica's analysis of Merritt-ocracy seems like it was written just so Jay would maybe write a post about it.
The Times' A.O. Scott seems to have written his lengthy, amusing slam of The Da Vinci Code just so Matthew could cover it in the Bad Review Revue.
And three thousand eight hundred words about Michael Jackson's finances? In the Times Business section? Clearly that's written just so I would link to it.
Despite having occasionally been guilty of link-bait in the past (the recent past even), I have to say, it's not a trend I think I like very much. Do we really need the blogs to become just as obsessed with sensationalism as our traditional media counterparts? I thought we were supposed to be all about the human voice; I think link-bait diminishes that voice a little, because you stop writing with your own voice, and rather use the voice you think will generate the most traffic.
Ha.. I've had a post brewing on the topic, it may appear on Monday.
I will paypal you six dollars if the phrase "sucka unicorn" appears in said post.
It's inevitable that traditional media is going to try and gain more and more attention from bloggers. Newspapers are in trouble and the smarter ones are reaching out. They'd be smarter if they wrote their own blogs and used their existing "stars" and the content engine behind them to generate quality, online blogs (some do, most don't).
It wouldn't surprise me if some reporters that are more in-tune with what's going on are "secretly" reaching out to bloggers (i.e. hoping to get linked to / gain popularity) so that they could branch out into careers outside of traditional media, should traditional media continue to collapse.
Is there any way I can get Michael Jackson to link his finances to my website?
What about the other way round, though? It seems to me that there's only a few sites that assemble genuinely researched and interesting daily links; everyone else just seems to be recycling others' links in the hopes of bathing in their reflected glory.
Or am I being too cynical?
I'm sure most people can tell the quality of articles written for attention instead of being original. Those bastards.