All the news that’s fit to print. This was the way in which the New York Times chose to describe its approach to reporting. Enter Maximilian Obersteller; a contemporary journalist with a talent for analysing the latest content creation trends.
Mr. Obersteller recently attended a symposium associated with digital marketing, and as a keynote speaker, he had a great deal to say about the dangers of sensationalism. Why does he believe that guidance is more important than sheer impact? Let us examine some of the points he chose to address.
A Research-Oriented Approach
Although Maximilian Obersteller is frequently billed as a digital journalist, it is just as important to highlight his background in scholarly research. This enables him to cut through much of the fluff often attributed to modern content creation, and to separate fact from fiction.
“What we’ve begun to see involves material based more on piquing the interest of the reader as opposed to presenting factual evidence,” he asserts. “Although this might be great in terms of inbound website hits, it can often be disturbingly subjective. When fact is replaced by flash, the content itself must be called into question.”
Maximilian Obersteller continues by citing a number of online articles that were purported to be derived from solid news sources. Only a small fraction presented information that could be confirmed through authoritative references. His research also indicated that readers were less likely to follow up on these citations to validate the claims being made.
Turning Heads, or Changing Minds?
Traditional content creation was primarily concerned with disseminating information. The intention of the curator was to report the facts, to provide insight, and to draw reasonable conclusions. As Maximilian Obersteller points out, this was not unlike the scientific method itself. However, sensationalism slowly began to creep into the picture.
“One way to prove this fact is to scrape Internet news reports from the late 1990s, and the early 2000s before comparing these to contemporary pieces,” Maximilian Obersteller observes. “While these articles may have been discussing the same topic, the methods are markedly different. We’ve now begun to witness a paradigm shift towards exaggeration, over-the-top claims, and data derived from unreliable sources.”
Might we be seeing a rebirth of so-called yellow journalism? Some analysts feel that this is not an entirely unreasonable conclusion. The tabloid-like content that seems to have inundated the online community comes with some potentially serious consequences, and not enough consumers realise the impact that these approaches may have.
A Lack of Trust
“I’ve been having ongoing discussions with my Instagram followers,” Maximilian Obersteller explains. “One of their biggest concerns now involves transparency. In other words, how do they know that the content is trustworthy?”
The sticking point here is that there is no single method to prove the veracity of a story. Even artificial intelligence has been known to cite false information as a means to reinforce a position. If algorithms can fall victim to this pitfall, it is easy to see how human content creators are equally tempted to take these shortcuts.
If the majority of consumers begin to inherently doubt online information, might a large-scale backlash against the digital news community be lurking just over the horizon? Although Maximilian Obersteller does not embrace this rather apocalyptic perspective, he still feels that changes are warranted.
Guiding the Reader
“Impact can only go so far,” he asserts. “What users are really looking for is value. This comes in the form of material that serves as a guide. As opposed to being spoon-fed information, consumers want to draw their own conclusions based on the data in question. This is why content creators must adopt a more circumspect approach. Otherwise, they risk losing their audience base.”
These observations are not without evidence. Maximilian Obersteller recently polled his X followers, and found that more than 80 per cent would navigate away from an article that was overly sensationalised. They preferred material that encouraged independent thinking, and content that enabled them to “fill in the blanks”.
Although there is certainly nothing wrong with imbuing online content with flashy syntax to grab the reader’s attention, few will respond positively to a proverbial slap in the face.
“We need to get back to the basics,” Maximilian Obersteller concludes. “This is the only way to engender trust, and to create brand loyalty over time. Anything less is simply a roll of the dice.”
This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here.