Examine the list of the 10 Most E-Mailed Stories on the home page of the New York Times Web site for Tuesday, August 27. When you consider them as a whole, do any consistent themes or preoccupations (on the part of journalists or readers or both) emerge? What does the list suggest is the primary function of the press in America today (informing, entertaining, rumor-mongering, counseling, editorializing, advertising, etc.)? Why do you think this function predominates (ideological reasons, economic reasons, cultural reasons, political reasons)? How does that make you feel (optimistic, dizzy, despairing) about the direction of the press and the society it serves? Your response is due -- remember, no late responses are given credit -- by 4 p.m., Wednesday, August 28.
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I would say that the most common themes in the top ten most emailed articles are editorial/opinion and entertainment. Among the list included an article about whether one should eat before working out, an article between the buying differences and quality of Microsoft versus Apple, and Bronx Zoo snow leopard finally made its debut after 5 months. There were two articles about the criminal justice system, one more of feature about an ex-convict who became a lawyer and the other about a peculiar antique silver thief who was finally caught after 30 years. Other themes revolved around the recession and education.
Overall, I wouldn’t say that the top ten were hard news at all. There was nothing about the government or policies,and nothing about warring countries. I must admit that I was expecting hard news to be at the top because of the reputation that the New York Times has. However, I don’t think that the top ten has anything to do with the Times per say because hard news is available online through them. Their readership simply is not sharing those stories.
The stories shared raise social conversation, such as wanting to vacation in a foreign place, or whether one person prefers Apple over Microsoft. People want to have something to say to other people that won’t offend the other person. They don’t want to talk about religion or war or poverty or racism. They want to talk about the recession, because everyone’s suffering. They want to talk about the Bronx zoo because who doesn’t love the zoo? They want to talk about the revitalization of Seattle, Washington because it gives them another place to visit or fantasize about visiting on vacation. It seems like readers are looking for an escape from the seriousness of life.
As someone who aspires to be a writer, not necessarily for a news paper, it makes me nervous to think that people won’t want to hear what I have to say unless its deemed sharable. I don’t want to blog or write a book for myself. I want to share my writing with potentially the world. Scary.
When I look at this list of articles as a whole the feeling I get is that people aren’t really focusing on any specific issue whether it be political, entertainment, or economic. While some of the articles are listed under US I’m not sure that catching a man that stole Ivana Trumps saltshakers in 1996 is going to stop the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. What this list is saying is what the primary function of the press is to counsel people by showing them that they aren’t the only ones going through financial burden and also to just inform but inform them with nothing of any great importance.
I feel that this has been made the function of the press because it is partially what people demand in a way. Were sitting here analyzing the top 10 most emailed stories, when all over the entire New York Times website there are articles covering political, economic, and social issues. These are the kinds of stories that should be way more interesting to the average person. I think our culture has just dumbed itself down to only caring about things that won’t scare them, or that directly effect them which are why stories covering iPhones and what to eat before working out are what is most read.
This makes me feel a little scared. I want to be a journalist and I want to inform people about things that are important in the world. I want people to care more about what is going on around them and I want to be able to reach out to people and change their perspective. If they aren’t open to the content that I’m putting out there I’m not sure I will ever be able to do it.
In terms of readership, the top ten e-mailed stories trend toward the American economy. “At Charter Schools,” “Set Back by Recession,” and several others have a distinct preoccupations with how the American economic system, specifically the job market, is functioning at the moment. With the job market unsettled and unemployment high, stories about landing back on one's feet with Hampton mansions or becoming a school supervisor at 24-years-old may be reassuring. On the other hand, there are no stories about foreign affairs, other than the one of Tuscan architecture, which seems to merely, like all the other stories, fulfill a sense of curiosity in the readership rather than inform.
With many of these stories being features and soft news, the list suggests that the press functions to editorialize and satisfy a curiosity for “interesting” news, rather than hard news. That these are only the top ten e-mailed stories, rather than the “Most Viewed,” shows that in the case of overall readership,, the press has become a way to avoid the news. In the “Most Viewed” category, the top story is about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Although NY Times readers are viewing the article, the news they are spreading is editorials on exercise and genetically altered tomatoes—news that the public, not the press, chooses; thus, it seems that how the press functions for the public and how the press would like to function are two completely different things. The public wants interesting, the press wants to give hard news the public seems to be avoiding.
The shared news between readers, then, is more based on cultural reasons than ideology or, despite the economic stories, the economy. Culturally, the American public is interested in stories about the how America is fairing after the recession, how the job market is functioning, an update on a wronged bank robber, and their desire to pick up and move to an ideal countryside in Italy.
All of this makes me pessimistically doubt the American public rather than the press. The top ten shared stories is due more to the interest of readership and has less to do with what information and stories the press is providing, as the leading story on the NY Times homepage, at this moment, is about the US government deciding on what actions to take regarding the Syrian military.
I think there are view themes or underlying issues within these top 10 emailed articles, of which say a lot about not only the information given to us in the press, but which we find the most stimulating (for our brains, our emotions, etc.) This in turn obviously says who we are as both producers and consumers of the press.
Although the article about the ideas behind the marches of Martin Luther King, Jr. are not necessarily news in and of itself, I found that they were the most relevant to current day news, in regards to the amount of protests and marches being had, in our nation and across the world, for various causes and concerns. Every other article seemed to decrease, in my eyes, in terms of value of news worthiness.
The first thing that stood out to me is that there are two articles dealing with elements of our education system; lapse in time of a charter school teacher’s residence as one such school, and a piece dealing with two ideas of educational reform. I would view these two as the most “important” or “weighty” pieces, but looking at the other articles on the list, maybe we have reached a point in our culture’s time period that just because something seems to have the most significance to education or perhaps the economy, it doesn’t make it seemingly important enough to find interesting and share – this to me is alarming.
For example, none of these articles on this list are “news” articles, for they really did not need to written in a short and timely manor to be relevant. Is that to say the rest of the articles are completely pop-culture filled, mind numbing piece of junk? To my slight shock, they were not. A few stories dealt with food, whether in regards to exercise or building a better tomato, and with America’s constant emphasis on attempted weight-loss and growing knowledge about Monsanto and GMOs, this seems like relevant info that people would share. I enjoyed reading both the articles.
Most of the remaining were just interesting stories that different types of people would feel had enough value to read and then to share. The same person who read about a man stealing silver collections in the south may not really be interest in a snow leopard’s birth, or care about Italian architecture, or even ravel in the shock value that charging $556 for saltwater provides, but there is enough of an intrigued audience for all three pieces that they were some of the most emailed articles, and illustrates our diversity within different interests. It shows that the primary position of the press has grown from being strictly a news providing mechanism, to having a main function of simply to interest and amuse. I do not necessarily see this as a negative for the press itself, for media and news will always provide news and updates on current nationwide and worldwide events. The number of less timely and most culture based articles that speak to different individual’s concerns and interest will just continue to grow.
On the whole, a lot of these articles seem to be either expository or entertainment-based. It seems like the media is trying very hard to be the eyes and ears of the people, almost making them believe that reading these articles and informing themselves on this material will make them part of something exclusive. I don't know whether I agree with this tactic, as news is pretty much available to everyone, but it clearly grabs people's attention.
The first most emailed article, "At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice," is clearly targeted to recent graduates looking for jobs, as the description even uses the term "youth movement." This article seems to be trying to give recent graduates an exclusive look into the job market they have recently thrown themselves into.
The fifth most emailed article, and the most seemingly expository in my opinion, "How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater," tries to expose the expenses of sodium chloride in the American healthcare system. It's even written from a first person point of view, making the article seem investigative.
Another article of this nature on the most emailed article list was number seven, "Salmonella in Spices Prompts Changes in Farming," which tries to expose to people what is in the food they eat, also making it seem like reading the article includes people in something exclusive.
Some of the other articles are entertainment-based, one about a newborn animal in the Bronx Zoo (because who doesn't like reading about newborn animals?), and another health-based article, informing people of good eating habits.
The nature of these recently emailed articles makes me believe that people want to feel like they are being let in on something exclusive. That's what news is supposed to do, right? And it never hurts to throw a little entertainment and weight-loss tips in there because we have to feed into people's dwindling attention spans.
So overall, I'm not surprised with the most read articles on The NY Times website, as it depicts what we as consumers would most want to see.
Top-10 E-mailed Articles accessed at 10:19 am
Looking at the list of most e-mailed articles, the main theme is 'soft news.' While half of the articles do deal with harder subject material like the economy and education reform, they're approached with more of a human interest angle. The remaining half are stories that I can't reasonably justify the presence of.
For example: There is an article about a thief of fine antique silver in the south. Interesting story, yes, but why is it there? Why is it number 4 on the top 10? I couldn't find a reason beyond the entertainment factor. Let's be honest: who doesn't love a good heist movie?
Here lies the problem: content is now driven by what gets views. The public now dictates what we read and view at a level not seen before. If people didn't like your writing, you got letters. People unsubscribed from your paper. With the internet, you can see your readership dwindle as your articles fail to draw interest. Tailoring your content to increase page views gets you stuck in a recursive cycle where, eventually, all your content is pap and you might as well be TMZ.
I've always like the terms 'hard' and 'soft' news. Like their names imply and the data seems to show, people like softer things. They're easier to deal with, wrap your minds around. But easy and right are not often the same things. Is it hard to be an informed citizen in the internet age? Hell yes. Is it possible? It's easier than you think.
The motto for the NY Times is "All the News that's Fit to Print." It's hard to believe that the arrival of a 5-month old snow leopard is what is really fit to print. It makes me wonder if there's not a cataclysmic reshuffling of how things are done coming soon. I would hope so. It seems the one thing the articles on the top-10 list all have in common is that I was disappointed by their presence there.
After reviewing the top 10 most emailed stories for the New York Times, a few topics and themes stood out to me. For the most part, I believe that these articles were intended to inform the reader about certain issues that were occurring such as, malicious software on Facebook, the Walk on Washington, and salmonella is spices. The second main reoccurring theme of the list would be the theme of entertainment such as the articles for the animal making its Bronx Zoo debut and the article that gave health advice.
Since hard news is defined as any news that deals with serious topics or events, I would not consider this group of articles to be hard news at all with the exception of the Martin Luther King article. The articles as a whole dealt with social topics and entertainment topics.
The reason for the soft news theme of these articles may be that the public as a whole may not be as interested in politics, current events, or economics as they are with social topics such as health foods, clothing fads, or educational reform. Political issues may be more difficult to hold the attention of the publics than it is for these topics to.
This makes me feel a little pessimistic about the education of our public. Not that I am one who is completely informed about what is going on in the world, but to not see any hard news as one of the most emailed stories might be a little startling.
When considered as a whole, there isn’t exactly a consistent theme throughout the most emailed stories. On one end of the spectrum, there’s an article about a 57-year-old man who was laid off from his job last year and has since yet to find another one, and on the other end there’s an article about a silver thief titled “A Finicky Thief of the Finest Silver Is Arrested Again” (apparently someone’s a fan of alliteration). It actually seemed pretty odd to me that this was the case; While waiting for the NY Times website to load, I was assuming that among the top emailed stories would be something about Miley Cyrus’s twerking extravaganza or Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones’s impending divorce. Instead, what I found was a mix of articles ranging from a variety of topics. Some articles were more informative: The top emailed story was about charter schools and how teachers have turned to them for shorter careers while two others focused on informing the public about “test tube tomatoes” (“I’m 98 percent confident we can make a tomato that tastes substantially better”) and whether eating prior to exercising was more productive than eating afterwards. Other articles were more entertaining: An architectural review article about “beautifying a Tuscan hill” sat at the number two spot for most emailed, while an article about a five month old snow leopard making his debut at the Bronx Zoo was at number three.
Informing and entertaining seem to be the predominating functions of the press, or so the list of top emailed stories suggests. I think this is mostly because the general public isn’t stereotypically interested in articles that they have to stare at and reread in order to understand; Articles about test tube tomatoes and baby snow leopards aren’t generally difficult to comprehend. These articles can also simply be useful, such as the eating before exercise “Ask Well” article.
In a way this makes me feel optimistic about society. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised when I wasn’t bombarded with articles about the Video Music Awards when viewing the list of top emailed stories. However, while there were certainly articles on the list that did hold some “value” to them such as the article about the recession and the article about overcharging for saline, I have to wonder why an article about test tube tomatoes is any more important or significant than an article about Miley Cyrus? Of course, the general concern regarding articles on various components of pop culture is that anyone reading them is simply wasting their time. Why read about frivolous nonsense when you can read about Syria and their evidence of chemical weapon use? As stated above, I believe this is because it’s simply easier for people to understand. Anyone can read about Miley Cyrus and gawk at her antics, but not everyone can intelligently discuss the situation regarding Syria (I won’t even pretend to be able to). But this is why I’m cautious to feel a little optimistic: How different is an article about a baby snow leopard or test tube tomatoes or McMansions in the Hamptons from an article about a celebrity divorce? None of those articles hold any substantial information regarding any significant worldly event happening. Maybe I’m just being cynical, but I guarantee you there are responses that are concerned with how uninformed the general public has been as a result of the press and mass media. I’m inclined to feel the same. Whether a bad thing or not, the fact that the public is more inclined to read about the Hamptons as opposed to the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech definitely says a lot.
After looking at the top ten most emailed articles, I definitely noticed a trend. When we talked in class about this assignment, I immediately thought that most emailed articles would be entertainment ones. This didn’t actually really seem to be the case, though. I felt as if the most emailed articles would be better classified as informing, especially on a personal level. Articles like “Salmonella in Spices Prompts Changes in Farming,” “Bring Your Lunch to Work” and “Why A.C.L. Injuries Sideline So Many Athletes” are articles that can potentially directly impact people on a personal level. For instance -- if there is salmonella in spices, you’re going to want to know so you know how to stay healthy. There also seems to be a slight theme of education in these emailed stories, which is another thing that impacts people on a daily basis.
I think the reason that most people are willing to share these stories more so than others is because they’re stories that have a direct impact on people’s daily lives. Although they might not be the most “important” articles (depending on your idea of what is important), they’re stories that most people can take things out of because they know that these stories have the ability to directly affect them and people that they know. If you know an athlete, you might want to send them the story about A.C.L. injuries. If you know a cook, you might want to send them the story about salmonella in spices. A lot of these stories also have to do with health, which is something that seems to typically be on a lot of people’s mind.
I feel a bit iffy towards the top ten most emailed list, although I’m not entirely one to talk. Although I’m sure these articles are very informative and helpful to read, I don’t necessarily think they’re the ones that should be getting spread around the most. The serious issues that are happening around the world are the stories that I believe should be shared the most and this is coming from a girl who would probably choose to read an entertainment article over something else. I’ve realized, though, more recently (having just finished an internship at MTV) that I (as well as many other people, especially college students) don’t spend enough time reading up on the important things. We’re more drawn to entertainment stories and stories that we feel actually impact us on a personal level. I don’t necessarily think this is a negative thing for the press or the media, considering they’re still getting readership and spreading some form of news, which in the end is what it’s all about. I do think this is a negative thing for people as a whole, though. We’re not focusing on the actual problems in the world. It’s not that journalists aren’t reporting on these serious issues, either. Society just doesn’t seem to be paying close enough attention to said articles. We live in a pretty egotistical society, so I feel as though a lot of people have the mentality that if it’s not happening in their own backyard, it’s not as “important” or worth sharing with others.
The focus of these articles is to explain, or discuss topics which impact many people’s life, but explains a new, or a poorly understood aspect of the focus. The article on spices informs the reader on a poorly understood aspect about the farming and risks of the spices produced. The editorial about the benefits of bringing lunch to work serves the purpose to inform, and entertain the audience while discussing a topic which is probably rarely thought about by the average busy New Yorker. The common thread between these pieces is that they all inform, entertain, and many of them editorialize. The downfall is that these stories on the list contain very little hard news and could be seen as fluff journalism.
In my opinion this is because the New York Times like many publications is a company which is competing with other publications to dominate the market share. Due to the advent of the internet many economic barriers of entry into the media have been lifted creating more competition. This creates an interesting situation in which these publications are publishing stories with more of an emphasis on entertaining, than covering hard news. I feel uncomfortable that the stories covered are in part dictated to the audience. Something about the current model of mainstream media verges on unethical. I believe one of the most important duties of journalism is to inform the audience on the most important things to know about current events, and sometimes needs to talk about topics which make the reader uncomfortable.
The focus of these articles is to explain, or discuss topics which impact many people’s life, but explains a new, or a poorly understood aspect of the focus. The article on spices informs the reader on a poorly understood aspect about the farming and risks of the spices produced. The editorial about the benefits of bringing lunch to work serves the purpose to inform, and entertain the audience while discussing a topic which is probably rarely thought about by the average busy New Yorker. The common thread between these pieces is that they all inform, entertain, and many of them editorialize. The downfall is that these stories on the list contain very little hard news and could be seen as fluff journalism.
In my opinion this is because the New York Times like many publications is a company which is competing with other publications to dominate the market share. Due to the advent of the internet many economic barriers of entry into the media have been lifted creating more competition. This creates an interesting situation in which these publications are publishing stories with more of an emphasis on entertaining, than covering hard news. I feel uncomfortable that the stories covered are in part dictated to the audience. Something about the current model of mainstream media verges on unethical. I believe one of the most important duties of journalism is to inform the audience on the most important things to know about current events, and sometimes needs to talk about topics which make the reader uncomfortable.
After skimming through the titles it seems to me (and possibly other readers) that the topics are pretty dispersed. But from the perspective of the journalists as a whole it seems as if there is always some underlying message that should be absorbed, as if it is something ‘we should get out of a story’. There was no surprise seeing that three out of the ten articles had something to do with the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “I Have a Dream” which always concluded with its predictable resonation of inspiration and optimism. Which in my opinion is not a bad thing, it was admirable.
The lists primary function reveals to be well rounded with variety. The stories ranged from gossip, travel, food, history, education, and U.S.; this doesn’t surprise me for America and its so-called diversity, although it does have its prominent features throughout the list, like mentioned before with MLK’s anniversary speech being both informative and entertaining.
I feel as though the stories presented in the top ten displayed functions that predominates all fields of all types of reasons. For example ideological the MLK speech where he is conscious of his goals and what he would like to see America become. An example of economic reasons was an article describing the different marketing layouts and scientific approaches to gearing people to eat healthier. Cultural reasons there was an article describing a beautiful winery in Italy containing an underground car garage, a staircase that spiraled similar to a peel of an orange and spectacular views of scenery and light. After reading that article, I felt a sense of appreciate for the building and wish that America had more buildings that were as respectable and as beautiful as that one (not that there isn’t any, but if there were more present in the populated areas, instead of cheap homes built to last not even a lifetime.) Finally the article of the New Jersey governor falling under the political reasons, where there were snarky titles made about him after comments made with a sport critic. They were pretty funny, but not very professional or respectable.
I feel a little lucky stumbling upon these top ten most emailed stories. They weren’t as ugly as I was expecting them to be. I was expecting more junk stories since there is so many of them out there. But they are the types of stories people want to hear. All in all, the reads were enjoyable and the overall direction seemed to be pretty optimistic as of the last 24 hours from The New York Times.
When looking at the articles on the NY Times website, the only common theme I picked up on was that none of the articles focused on relevant, current events. If you look at other sections of the website, it is flooded with current events concerning political, economic, international issues. I find this to be what the purpose of the press is; to inform the public of real world issues. However, the top ten most emailed articles have little to nothing to do with these issues. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 50th anniversary of his famous “I have a dream speech”, this was the most common article in the list. Aside from that, the remaining articles were about nutrition, Ipads and other superficial topics.
When looking at these articles, I feel as though its purpose is to inform but it is only being informative towards issues that don’t really matter. People should be more interested in what is going on in Syria and Egypt, but instead they want to read articles about Ipads and how to lose weight. I think the reasons for this is because of our culture. Our culture is starting to care less and less about current events that can have a true impact on our lives and actually make you more aware of the world around you and focus on things that don’t matter. Thinking about our cultures lack of interest towards politics, the economy, international relations etc. it makes me scared. We are becoming less informed and therefore less knowledgeable and aware of the world around us. We have endless amounts of information right at our fingertips and I find that our culture is just taking complete advantage of it and using it for the wrong reasons,
The "Most emailed" stories seem whimsical compared to the nerve wrecking headlines that jump out at those who care to pay attention in this world. Chances are you will never see the most pressing and effective political news of the day on the top ten list of most emailed stories. Why is this?
Bullshit Optimistic Answer:
People, in confidence that that their friends have already been enlightened on mass murders in Egypt and Government infringements upon their constitutional rights, mainly just share/email the stories their friends may have missed, like stories about half naked teenage pop stars, being fat, and cats.
Now that the New York Times website is working, I have been able to read the 10 most emailed stories of the day and noticed somewhat of a theme. All of the stories, from the one about squirrels causing power-outages all the way to one about children using a Rainbow Loom to make money at a lemonade stand have something in common. They are not hard news. There were no time sensitive stories that had to do with any kind of current events. The closest thing to hard news was a story about a new website customers can look at to see what information marketers have collected about them.
Not only were the stories not time sensitive, but they were not Earth shattering exposes or inside looks into politics or the world. They were all features stories. The journalists in many of the stories made the articles more artist profiles and human interest stories. There were no stories of a national interest, let alone any about global issues. This list suggests that the primary function of the press in America today is to entertain. Why else would the number one article emailed be about a squirrel? I think this function predominates as a means of perpetuating the lack of education of current events and real news in this country. I see it more as a lack of culture and ideals rather than necessarily an ideological or cultural reason. It makes me concerned that the lack of interest in what is happening in the world around us is going to lead to more changes that are harmful for the population as a whole, with no one there to stop it. It’s almost like a horror movie. The press perpetuates the “fluff” news because it is what people want to read and what will get the people to read their publications.
If mainstream news has any hope to be put back in the “hard news” direction, then there needs to be a change in the education system and morals of the people to care about what is happening around them. This list of the top emailed stories and people’s lack of knowledge of world events makes me wonder if we’re already being brainwashed and we don’t even know it’s happening.
Upon examining the top ten emailed stories on the NewYorkTimes website, a few things quickly became apparent. The most stark similarity that I found between the stories was the fact that they all concentrate on subjects that pertain more to the world of social entertainment. With the exception of the tenth story on the list, each story is concerned with a domestic issue instead of world issues. For example, The fourth most shared story concerns the best place to go backpacking in America and the values of backpacking compared to staying in a hotel. The fact that this is substantially higher on the list than a story concerning the impending war with Syria, which was tenth on the list, is very disturbing.
The fact that the list of most shared stories are overwhelmingly centered on social issues, or at least issues concerning the humanities such as art and music, is deserving of much more attention than is being received. This fact shows the fact that the American public has become ignorant, and almost mentally removed, from world events. As a society, we care more about which celebrity is in the news now instead of the severity of Syria's atrocities and an the almost guarentee of yet another war within at least six months.
The ten most emailed stories list on the New York Times is revealing of the paper’s readers. “Explaining Twerking to Your Parents” holds the number one spot. And if that doesn’t say it all, there’s a cute article about squirrels, an opinion piece on Labor Day, and a quick bit on how constant smartphone use prevents meaningful memories. The contrast between these articles and the top news of the day is startling in that it reveals a culture obsessed with itself to the point of self-induced ignorance pertaining to global events and important political actions. What should really be at the top of your head while Obama is busy lobbying for airstrikes in Syria is that article about explaining Miley Cyrus’s ass gyrations and how you should explain them to your concerned parents.
The list makes me think the press’s primary job is entertainment. After all, these are the articles people are sending each other, so logic would indicate these are the articles people are also reading the most. Why? I think the American public simply likes being entertained more than being informed. A dry piece that informs the public about a conflict on the other side of the world isn’t as appealing as learning quirky facts about squirrels or what Labor Day used to mean. I think it’s a cultural phenomenon. I think it’s a combination of Americans being burnt out on Middle East quasi-wars and the media saturation that has fueled American distaste for said “wars.” There are also other reasons. People with wealth who feel their decisions in life carry weight for those around them are more likely to read more globally focused articles than, say, a struggling worker living paycheck to paycheck. I also think our government’s seeming inability to get anything done has burnt out the American public’s trust in their government. The reasons are complex and plenty. It makes me feel sick. So much information is available nowadays, but the information we are digesting is garbage.
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