廣告的轟炸式推廣已威脅新聞業生態
“News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising,” runs the journalists’ mantra, variously ascribed to publishers William Randolph Hearst and Lord Northcliffe. If so, news is being deluged.
記者們有一句座右銘：“新聞是某些人不希望你印出來的東西。其他都是廣告。”這句話有人說是威廉•蘭道夫•赫斯特(William Randolph Hearst)說的，也有人說是諾斯克利夫勳爵(Lord Northcliffe)說的。如果這話屬實，那麼新聞正處於四面楚歌的境地。
In 2014, the fastest-growing form of online “content” is an epidemic of heartwarming videos (“One Mother Did Something Illegal To Help Her Kids, And This Cop Was Totally, Unexpectedly Cool”), funny lists (“33 Reasons Miley Cyrus Was Actually The Best Thing To Happen To 2013”) and click-bait headlines from sites such as BuzzFeed, Upworthy and ViralNova.
2013年增長最快的在線“內容”形式是像傳染病一樣四處傳播的感人視頻（“一位母親爲幫助孩子不惜以身涉法，警察太棒了，讓人完全沒想到(One Mother Did Something Illegal To Help Her Kids, And This Cop Was Totally, Unexpectedly Cool)”）、各種有趣清單（“麥莉•賽勒斯是2013年最大驚喜的33個理由(33 Reasons Miley Cyrus Was Actually The Best Thing To Happen To 2013)”）以及來自BuzzFeed、Upworthy、ViralNova這類網站的誘人點擊的標題。
Rather than being found on news sites or through search engines, they flourish on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter . While reporters pride themselves on digging out bad news and awkward facts, these stories often appeal to positive emotions – affection, admiration and awe. They are packaged to make people share content with friends, and to spread like a virus.
這些內容不是來自新聞網站或搜索引擎，而是在Facebook和推特(Twitter)這類社交網絡上大行其道。儘管記者們以發掘壞消息和糗事爲榮，以上故事卻常常能引起人的正面情緒——愛、讚賞和敬畏。它們的包裝方式就是爲了便於與朋友分享，然後像病毒一樣擴散。
Some of this is advertising – BuzzFeed designs viral campaigns for companies that are difficult to tell apart from its other output. Much of it has an advertising-like aspect. Viral producers devote as much effort to marketing content as to concocting it, like an advertising agency married to a newsroom.
有些做法屬於廣告——BuzzFeed爲一些公司設計了病毒營銷方案，幫它們從該網站的其他頁面中脫穎而出。這一做法中的很大一部分具有廣告效果。病毒內容製造商在推銷和製作方面花的精力一樣多，他們就像是廣告代理商與報社編輯部的結合體。
That upsets many journalists: complaints range from the blurring of the line between editorial and advertising to the way faked videos and Photoshopped pictures have at times become viral sensations without being fact-checked. Upworthy’s efforts to tug at readers’ heartstrings enrage sceptical editors.
這一點令許多記者不安，他們抱怨這模糊了新聞編輯和廣告製作的界限，還抱怨虛假的視頻和經過編輯的照片時不時未經驗證就成爲病毒式的轟動新聞。比如，Upworthy網站多次試圖撥動讀者心絃的做法，就激怒了持懷疑態度的編輯們。
“The crowd will eventually choose the juicy truth over a heartwarming hoax,” Nick Denton, publisher of the Gawker news and gossip sites (and a former Financial Times journalist), declared defiantly in December as BuzzFeed’s traffic overtook his own.
2013年12，新聞和閒聊網站Gawker的出版商、曾任英國《金融時報》記者的尼克•丹頓(Nick Denton)在BuzzFeed的流量超過他的網站時曾輕蔑地宣稱：“這些人最終會選擇有趣的真相，而不是溫暖人心的段子。”But I find it hard not to laugh at the moral outrage of news publishers whose muckraking is outflanked by cute cat videos. As long as media buyers and advertisers do not distinguish among consumers who find news through search engines and those who are drawn to entertainment through Facebook likes and Twitter mentions, all free content will compete equally and volume will win.
然而，我禁不住要嘲笑那些新聞出版商的道德義憤了——他們披露的醜聞影響力還趕不上可愛的貓咪視頻。只要媒體採購機構和廣告商不區分那些用搜索引擎尋找新聞的顧客和出於娛樂目的而被Facebook的“贊(like)”及推特的“提到(mention)”吸引的顧客，所有免費內容都將平等競爭，點擊量將決定一切。
The reality is that Gawker and sites such as Mail Online, drawn from the UK tabloid tradition, face being hoist by their own petard. Having defined success by how many clicks they gain for sensational stories, they find that someone else has invented a better traffic trap (although the fast-growing Mail Online still beats BuzzFeed on number of visitors).
現實是Gawker及脫胎於英國小報傳統的Mail Online這類網站正面臨自食其果的窘境。它們原本以轟動性報道所獲點擊率來衡量報道的成功程度，如今他們卻發現，其他人發明了比他們更吸引點擊量的的東西（儘管快速成長的Mail Online訪問人數依然打敗了BuzzFeed）。
The inventor is Jonah Peretti, co-founder of the Huffington Post and founder of BuzzFeed. From an early experience of a viral email exchange with Nike when he tried to have the word “sweatshop” printed on a pair of running shoes, he has become a pioneer of digital word-of-mouth.
這種策略是由《赫芬頓郵報》(Huffington Post)共同創始人、BuzzFeed網站創始人喬納•佩雷蒂(Jonah Peretti)發明的。當初，他曾試圖在一對跑鞋上印上“血汗工廠(sweatshop)”一詞，當時他與耐克(Nike)之間的病毒式電子郵件往來經歷，令他成爲數字化口碑式傳播的先鋒。
His insight was that sharing works differently from search. Search is a way to discover information, whereas sharing is prompted by emotion. People read all kinds of material but they mostly share stories or videos that create positive reactions, such as laughter; or actively negative ones, such as anger.
他意識到，分享與搜索具有不同的運行方式。搜索是發現信息的途徑，而分享則是由情緒推動的。人們會閱讀各種各樣的材料，但多數情況下，他們會分享的內容要麼是那些引起正面反應（比如令人大笑）的故事或視頻，要麼是那些產生積極負面反應（比如憤怒）的內容。One study of 7,000 New York Times articles by two professors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that sad stories were the least shared because sadness is a low-arousal, negative state. People were more likely to share positive stories because it was a way to show generosity and boost their reputations. Sharing pleasant things in public made them appear nice themselves.
賓夕法尼亞大學(University of Pennsylvania)沃頓商學院(Wharton)兩位教授研究了《紐約時報》(New York Times)的7000篇文章。他們發現，悲傷的報道被分享得最少，因爲悲哀是一種刺激性較低的負面狀態。人們更喜歡分享正面報道，因爲這是一種體現寬容和提高聲譽的方法。在公開場合分享愉快事物能令人們自身顯得很善良。
This is enough to make old hands tear their hair out (“What works in viral is fake piety,” says one); and it has combined with a shift to video as broadband speeds increase. The internet, originally a means for academics to share information, is becoming primarily an entertainment medium where a juicy headline on a video is text enough.
這一點足以令新聞界的老手抓狂（其中一位曾說道：“病毒式推廣生效的原因是一種假惺惺的虔誠”）。而隨着寬帶網速的提升，視頻內容日益增多也助長了這一現象。最初只是學術界信息共享手段的互聯網，如今卻主要成了一種娛樂媒介——在這種媒介上，一個吸引眼球的視頻標題就足以替代所有文字。
Not all viral content is trite and shallow. The techniques pioneered by Mr Peretti can, like advertising campaigns, be applied to all kinds of products. Upworthy, which drew 88m unique users in November, according to Quantcast, uses them to lure people to videos on liberal causes such as gay marriage and poverty alleviation, and persuade them to donate money. “Content on important topics is often dry, like the Brussels sprouts part of the meal that you have to choke down,” says Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy. “We thought: why does it have to be that way? Why can’t you make it taste good, so people want to eat?”
不是所有病毒式內容都陳腐而膚淺。和廣告營銷一樣，由佩雷蒂首創的這種技術能被運用到所有產品上。根據Quantcast的數據，2013年11月份Upworthy網站吸引了8800萬不同用戶。該網站就利用這種技術，以同性婚姻和消除貧困等自由派的事業來吸引人們觀看視頻，並說服他們捐錢。Upworthy共同創始人伊萊•帕裏澤(Eli Pariser)表示：“有關重要話題的內容總是乾巴巴的，就像是一頓飯裏總有不得不嚥下的球芽甘藍。我們的想法是：事情爲何一定要這樣？爲什麼不能把它弄得好吃一些，讓人喜歡吃呢？”
Meanwhile, BuzzFeed has stepped up its journalistic efforts, adding in-depth reporting on politics and business to its fluffier material. It has 140 reporters, started a UK site in 2013 and will add an investigative journalism unit this year.
與此同時，BuzzFeed也加大了在新聞領域的動作，在十分溫情的內容中加入了政治和商業方面的深度報告。該網站擁有140名記者，在2013年啓動了一個英國站點，今年還將增加一個新聞調查部門。
Virality could eventually strike its limits. People may tire of clicking on Upworthy’s saccharine headlines (“Watch This 6-Year-Old Give You The Most Adorable Guilt Trip Ever”). BuzzFeed’s lists of “10 Adorable Photos” and “40 Astonishing Facts” could go out of fashion.
病毒式推廣最終可能會走到盡頭。人們可能會厭倦於點擊Upworthy的情緒化標題（“看看這個，6歲孩子爲您展示超萌負疚之旅(Watch This 6-Year-Old Give You The Most Adorable Guilt Trip Ever)”）。而BuzzFeed的“10大萌照(10 Adorable Photos)”和“40個驚人事實(40 Astonishing Facts)”也可能不再流行。
News publishers should not count on it. Not only are BuzzFeed and others growing fast but they are flexible enough to adjust tactics in response to audience demand. They can also expand around the core of viral content, as BuzzFeed has done. Like television networks with news divisions, they can combine the serious and the amusing.
對此，新聞出版商不能做太多指望。BuzzFeed和其它類似網站不但增長十分迅速，而且也足夠靈活，能夠改變戰術適應觀衆需求。它們還有可能BuzzFeed那樣擴充病毒式內容的內核。它們和擁有新聞部門的電視網一樣，能夠做到集嚴肅性和趣味性於一身。
Ultimately, entertainment is a bigger business than news. That was true of the analogue world and there is no reason to think it will change online. The lesson of the viral epidemic for news publishers is that, if you battle for attention with entertainment, you lose.
歸根結底，娛樂業務的規模比新聞更大。這一點適用於模擬世界，我們沒理由認爲到了在線世界，情況會有所不同。對於新聞出版商來說，病毒式推廣的教訓就是：如果要和娛樂爭奪眼球，那就必輸無疑了。
