Buzzfeed’s New Leaf

Buzzfeed is changing its practice in regards to the stories it posts and shares each day in a major way. According to the Columbia Journalism Review’s article “Who cares if it’s true?”, written by Marc Fisher, Buzzfeed has been growing in staff and audience and has thus decided to take more responsibility for the information it spreads. For these reasons, the company is becoming known as a place to get news stories from as well as entertainment.  Fisher mentions the words of Rega Jha, writer for Buzzfeed, how although Buzzfeed still covers fun topics such as difficulties women with big butts experience, it is also covering more serious topics such as sexual abuse going on in India. Fisher also mentions how copy editors have been welcomed as part of Buzzfeed’s staff to fact-check articles on the company’s Top 10 list as well as investigations and narrative features. The company has also begun to make corrections to falsified information, as Buzzfeed staff member Burton told Fisher. All in all, the company is making an effort to become a more reliable source that publishes serious news stories alongside entertaining ones for their growing audience.

The primary concern that media veterans have with the hyper-immediate news delivery online-saavy companies such as Buzzfeed take part in is that information could be incorrect. Fisher tells how older journalists such as Andrew Sullivan believe that entertainment and journalism should not be mixed, for the accuracy of hard news may be compromised. Through social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, millennials especially have gotten used to getting news quickly, though not always correctly. Fisher explains how the speed associated with the internet has caused stories to be released as quickly as possible, albeit the weak sourcing they have received. He tells how news is released instantaneously and, if incorrect, is corrected later rather than waiting for the news to be verified as true before being released. It only makes sense then that old-school journalists would be horrified by the new generation’s way of delivering news, for they are used to several fact checkers going over everything and making entirely sure that news is correct before releasing it.

Although Buzzfeed is trying to turn a new, more accurate leaf, potential problems with their practices or process of vetting stories could arise from the stories they do not check. Yes, Fisher does explain that the company is using copy-editors for more-important stories, but what about the less-important ones that could still go viral? Also, not all of Buzzfeed’s staff think of themselves as journalists, as Fisher explains, which could lead to staff members creating stories on a whim without doing a check on whether the information is legit. In order for Buzzfeed to really become a reliable source, all staff members should be held responsible for making sure to the best of their abilities that the stories they pursue are not hoaxes, and, if they are not sure, to seek help from copy editors. If this is done, then maybe Buzzfeed will succeed in becoming a trustworthy source of news as well as a fun place to go to for entertainment.