 | BuzzFeed has grown to become royalty in the media and their influence is significant - Leila Mottley |
In the past decade, BuzzFeed has introduced a space promoting activism, self love, and critical thinking that many people would not have had access to otherwise. Since its introduction, this space has become instantly popular with its followers. Is BuzzFeed’s popularity due to our generation’s desire for these qualities, or is our generation’s value of these qualities due to spaces like BuzzFeed? Either way, it is apparent that BuzzFeed is having an impact, one that is dismissed by many people, specifically older generations, who often speak of millennials’ toxic dependence on technology. However, BuzzFeed is unique in their embrace of the internet as a tool for story, connection, and perspective.
While BuzzFeed is known for their hilarious videos and revealing quizzes, they also produce a substantial amount of important news articles. This is often overshadowed by their comical content, but their progressive reporting plays a large role in our modern form of news output. BuzzFeed’s success is partially due to their strategic ways of getting their content into the world. One of the most effective ways of accessing news is through story. BuzzFeed creates articles and videos capturing narratives from various points of views in an extremely captivating way.
BuzzFeed uses their YouTube channel to produce content that covers funny, interesting topics, and important current events. Since they launched their Hollywood-based video production company, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures in 2014, their audience has become attached to the production team. Their YouTube channel focuses on creating a community invested in the interesting “characters” that recur in many videos. Series on the channel such as The Try Guys, Ladylike, and Debateable allow the viewers to regularly connect with the producers by continuing to consume their videos. These series feature casts of recurring producers sharing their views and personalities through comedic situations. People continue to watch these videos out of dedication to the production team, who consumers now have an attachment to. In this way, BuzzFeed has developed an incredible way for people to also access important news in a world of more superficial and sometimes entertaining content.
While BuzzFeed is known for their hilarious videos and revealing quizzes, they also produce a substantial amount of important news articles. This is often overshadowed by their comical content, but their progressive reporting plays a large role in our modern form of news output. BuzzFeed’s success is partially due to their strategic ways of getting their content into the world. One of the most effective ways of accessing news is through story. BuzzFeed creates articles and videos capturing narratives from various points of views in an extremely captivating way.
BuzzFeed uses their YouTube channel to produce content that covers funny, interesting topics, and important current events. Since they launched their Hollywood-based video production company, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures in 2014, their audience has become attached to the production team. Their YouTube channel focuses on creating a community invested in the interesting “characters” that recur in many videos. Series on the channel such as The Try Guys, Ladylike, and Debateable allow the viewers to regularly connect with the producers by continuing to consume their videos. These series feature casts of recurring producers sharing their views and personalities through comedic situations. People continue to watch these videos out of dedication to the production team, who consumers now have an attachment to. In this way, BuzzFeed has developed an incredible way for people to also access important news in a world of more superficial and sometimes entertaining content.
BuzzFeed is a cross-platform global network for news and entertainment that generates seven billion views each month. It was originally founded by Jonah Peretti in 2005, a year after he co-founded The Huffington Post. They run on virality--tracking what content gets the maximum views or shares--and producing articles and videos meant to achieve this. While BuzzFeed was originally created to track viral content and make things that people would want to share, it has since grown to become a unique platform of entertainment and news output whose popularity has proved to have a large impact on our culture.
BuzzFeed corporation includes 18 offices and 1,300 employees around the world. They credit their popularity to adapting with social media and the needs of younger generations. Over 50% of Buzzfeed.com visitors are between the ages of 18 and 34, but most of their massive following includes people under 18. In addition, BuzzFeed utilizes the internet in an innovative way by making themselves available on many platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and their own website.
On Buzzfeed.com, there is a clear divide between comical and political pieces. Many of these comical pieces are the source of income for the company. BuzzFeed makes money by creating custom content centered around promoting the advertiser’s product. Sponsors pay a set fee for BuzzFeed to make quizzes/articles/videos that will help sell their product. This is called native advertising. Buzzfeed doesn’t broadcast that the piece is sponsored, and instead advertises in a hidden way while remaining true to the art of the piece and increasing likelihood of views. In many ways this shows how the media is setup to make money, and BuzzFeed is definitely skilled at doing it without much backlash.
BuzzFeed runs under the system of mass production. They produce an average of 700 pieces daily. On the website, each editor has a feed and on BuzzFeed’s YouTube, producers run their own projects. The constant creation of pieces keeps their audience interested and maintains their viral content, as well as giving the artists full creative control. They also try to make it possible for relatable content to be shared more easily. For example, BuzzFeed.com has an intricate setup where the most viral content is put into rotation on the front page. This increases possibility for views on the most shared pieces.
The influence that BuzzFeed is currently having on media, culture, and beliefs is crucial to who we are as a generation. They produce content with a progressive perspective and, often, political themes. The millions of young people consuming BuzzFeed’s productions are being exposed to a dominant liberal view on the world, which possibly has impact on the audience’s formation of beliefs. With so much attention on BuzzFeed, is it possible that future generations will grow up dreaming of working not at traditional news outlets like The New York Times, but at BuzzFeed?