A New Formula
There is no doubt that Upworthy, BuzzFeed, and Faith It have carved out a highly specialized niche on the Internet. However, their rising popularity means that their influence has spread to other domains as well. Most noticeably, their particular brand and format of headlines has been adopted by many online news and content-producing/sharing outlets. This video below provides a comic take on how these websites have made over the Internet headline:
In addition to considering how these websites affect our understanding of activism, we also need to consider how they are affecting the field of online journalism. On any given day, as I scroll down my Facebook newsfeed, I encounter dozens of shared links all with the same sensationalized, glamorized, baited titles. More often than not, I am repelled by these titles, not compelled. The inundation of these headlines has caused them to lose all of their initial appeal and intrigue. Instead, this new format carries not-so-positive connotations about the article, the author, and the website. Unfortunately, they have become associated with content that provides a cheap, temporary "high."