Upworthy is a website that people can go to and find links to articles, videos, and viral content of their liking.
The site gets a lot of flack from journalists who claim Upworthy lures readers in by packaging up content with their own outrageous headlines as “click-bait.” In a recent post, Upworthy cleared up these accusations, stating that it isn’t just their headlines, which writers and editors do spend a lot of time perfecting, but the quality of their content that gets them so much traffic. The fact that people not only want to click on and read their stories, but that they keep reading and hit that little share button, is the secret to their success. Upworthy seems to have found a way to keep people coming back to them by making sure what they post begs to be spread. In this age of viral videos and social networking, media websites such as Upworthy, Buzzfeed, etc. rely on Facebook and Twitter for the sharing of their posts – that is what fuels their popularity. This is a great example of how the Internet can change the media. Media websites, such as HuffPost or The New York Times, whose posts don’t have the entertainment and pop culture value of Upworthy, must find a way around their dependence on outside social networks for their own business. In other words, they can’t rely on the “share” button to advertise their news because Upworthy will win every time!
If things keep going in this direction, people might start to only use Facebook/Twitter to get their daily dose of news. This coincides with the recent launch of Facebook’s Paper app, which is basically a news reader app showing you top news headlines along with your own Facebook news feed, and within the app you can perform any regular Facebook functions.
To read more about Upworthy & Facebook changing the standards of social news consumption, check out these links:
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-new-paper-app-2014-2
