Media Manipulation

In his talk, Holiday, former head of marketing at American Apparel, digs into the economics of the Web. The business model of many media outlets is now based on producing as many blog posts as conceivably possible in order to generate page views. This shift from quality to quantity has more profound impact on our everyday lives than we think. In order to attract eyeballs, sensational headlines are often used and reality becomes distorted and exaggerated.

He compares today’s media system to that of 1901, where newspaper boys shouted the most sensational headlines they could think of, to sell as many copies as possible.