Buzzfeed. You know, the "listicle" site, and those numerous, sub-cateogry channels on YouTube with all the completely relate-able videos for young adults? Yes, that's the one. Buzzfeed sets the bar of flexibility high in the non-traditional media, but this sociability would certainly bring the company a juicy scandal at some point!
On the About section of the company's site, Buzzfeed describes itself as:
"A cross-platform, global network for news and entertainment that generates six billion views each month. BuzzFeed creates and distributes content for a global audience and utilizes proprietary technology to continuously test, learn and optimize."
Despite "creating" exuberant amounts of original content, in July of 2014 Buzzfeed found themselves publicly apologizing for the misconduct of one of their most popular political journalists, Benny Johnson.
From an article titled Top Plagiarisms Scandals of 2014, journalist Johnathan Bailey said Johnson, "Was a series of firsts. He was the first to be targeted by Our Bad Media, he was the first major plagiarism scandal to only affect non-traditional media and he was the first to have the pall of plagiarism cast upon him, but to find new work so quickly."
 |
| Benny Johnson |
Buzzfeed had originally stood by him, but the evidence continued to pile up. The company ended up conducting an investigation of its own. It found that of nearly 500 posts by Benny Johnson, 41 contained blatant plagiarism. According to the Washington Post, Johsnon had taken material from other media outlets such as The Guardian, Wikipedia, and even Yahoo Answers. He hadn't properly attributed his sources, and his boss was shocked to find that 10% of Johnson's "original" work (as he had called it) was indeed plagiarized.
Excerpt from the Washington Post article Benny Johnson Got Fired From Buzzfeed. You Will Believe What Happened Next:
"On a blog called Our Bad Media, Blippoblappo and another Twitter personality, @Crushingbort, named three examples of Benny’s work that cribbed from Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers, and other sources. “It was so easy to spot this stuff, you have to conclude that there was essentially no editorial oversight,” they wrote in an e-mail to The Post."
Buzzfeed had to be crushed to lose such a hip, young personality. The company revered him for his ability to make politics into a form of click-bait. Benny Johnson was exactly what the new generation wanted in a journalist. To be fair, however, Johnson didn't really do anything the current generation attributes much criminality to. In fact, his ability to bounce back after the scandal surprised the media. Bailey wrote:
"Other famous plagiarists such as Jonah Lehrer and Jayson Blair were essentially blackballed from the industry and have been unable to quickly find new work. However, Johnson not only had a new job within three months, but he was reporting again within four. This has led many to wonder if attitudes toward plagiarism have changed and if, in journalism, it isn’t being treated as seriously of a transgression as it was just a few years ago."
According to the Washington Post, Johnson had made himself into a "Washington media-insider" in under two years. He brought viewers to the boring side of Buzzfeed, and according to the man himself, "Somebody’s got to make the first Joe Biden GIF listicle.”
Maybe his "listicle" journalism is scoffed on by traditional media, but people want to be entertained by their news. If people want their politicians to be summarized into a photographic/GIF list similar to “The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions”, then that's just what Benny Johnson is going to continue to give them.
You can read Buzzfeed's apology here
*Articles linked within blog entry
*Articles linked within blog entry
No comments:
Post a Comment