• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The media are dying - now it's Vice

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Alas, the "Solution" folks will take from this are to better align with fringe ideology, double down on shock journalism, butter up to DEI/ESG $$$ providers, and more clickbait.

The clear solution is integrity, objectivity, positivity, common interest, and a focus on humanity over sensationalism. When can I create an A.I. Walter Cronkite?


....with big tits, of course!
The way social media is going, I;m thinking the way for these kinds of wesbites and employees to survive is just go dirt cheap entertaining content. It's doesn't have to be expensive, doesn't need to be accurate, and get people who will do content who already have day jobs. People who dont really give a shit if they get paid cheap or at all. They already got a day job for money. Just find some people who enjoy doing content on pure enjoyment and contributing.

It's like us on Gaf who spend a lot of time here. We dont get paid. We just post shit for fun. We all surely got day jobs to pay the bills.

Its like my coworker who has a popular instagram account with tons of followers. Hardly anyone even knows she does it. I didn't find out till last year because it's her after dinner/weekend side gig. Nowhere on her social media sites when I googled her does it say where she works or even her real last name. Whether she makes money off it or not I dont think she gives a shit. I'm sure she does when you got 6-digits of followers. At work, I'd guess she makes around $120,000 + bonus with the usual sweet company perks and benefits. What does she care if she makes money off her social media profiles. She's a solid person at work doing her job too so it's not like she even gives a shit about it at work unless she crams in content during lunch as she's in meetings a lot of the time given the management job she's in.
 
Last edited:

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Generative AI entering into entertainment purposes, chatbots for finding information fast, user-made content becoming better than outlet-driven material, etc... I suspect a lot of the current new/entertainment houses online will collapse. It's a second collapse phase now, a bit like the first one that took out traditional newspapers when the web first arrived, but now it will take out the kinds of media that replaced the newspapers.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
I can't really comment on their typed media, I've long said that whatever happened to journalism has made reading modern websites cringe inducing on both sides.

But Vice's YouTube is still pretty amazing for their coverage of fringe topics and I'll be pretty sad to see it go.



I remember their video content actually being interesting, like when they went to North Korea.

The website has to be a parody, right?
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
The way social media is going, I;m thinking the way for these kinds of wesbites and employees to survive is just go dirt cheap entertaining content. It's doesn't have to be expensive, doesn't need to be accurate, and get people who will do content who already have day jobs. People who dont really give a shit if they get paid cheap or at all. They already got a day job for money. Just find some people who enjoy doing content on pure enjoyment and contributing.

It's like us on Gaf who spend a lot of time here. We dont get paid. We just post shit for fun. We all surely got day jobs to pay the bills.

Its like my coworker who has a popular instagram account with tons of followers. Hardly anyone even knows she does it. I didn't find out till last year because it's her after dinner/weekend side gig. Nowhere on her social media sites when I googled her does it say where she works or even her real last name. Whether she makes money off it or not I dont think she gives a shit. I'm sure she does when you got 6-digits of followers. At work, I'd guess she makes around $120,000 + bonus with the usual sweet company perks and benefits. What does she care if she makes money off her social media profiles. She's a solid person at work doing her job too so it's not like she even gives a shit about it at work unless she crams in content during lunch as she's in meetings a lot of the time given the management job she's in.
See, the problem here is if it's all just "social media posts" then how do you know the posts aren't paid advertising? Unless the posts are 100% joke meme vidoes or whatever, almost all "influencers" eventually come to a point where, as a viewer, I gotta wonder if they are being paid to hawk something or are legit enthused about it. Same for "journalists" that follow the $$$ rather than ethics in reporting.

My main concern is that we have allowed ourselves to be infinitely divided and categorized by our "differences", rather than united by common shared positive traits. Can we ever go back to an American (in my case) common cultural worldview that has a few slightly divergent paths but not ones that are diametrically opposed and HOSTILE to each other? News media, what they report, HOW they report it, how informed the audience was as to the nature and source of the news (was it an op-ed piece, was there trust in editorial staff and journalistic integrity, etc), has a big hand in shaping this shared culture, but now it's 2 camps at war with each other and those camps are also internally fighting, prompted by a legacy view of the news media as "truth" that hasn't existed for DECADES. It's the most dysfunctional marriage ever :p

oh yeah, whats her @? :p
 
Last edited:

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
oh yeah, whats her @? :p
Hahaha. I dont wanna say.

Funny thing is when I heard through the grapevine she had it, I woulda never guessed shed do this on the side. Its not a sketchy or sleazy account or anything. But a cool side gig. Good on her. I dont know if her hubby helps her with it. She's married but no sign of her hubby or kids anywhere in her pics.
 
Last edited:

ahtlas7

Member
Sad The End GIF
Become history.
 
The issue with the media is that it has devolved into a pure propaganda outlet which speaks only with one voice and they all say the same thing. When this happens, well you don't need 75 different propaganda outlets. You only need 1. So the New York Times is flourishing, everything else is dying. Vice, Buzzfeed, etc. nobody needs 37 different Internet propaganda outlets all screaming the same thing. This is even a problem for newspapers, when all newspapers are screaming the same thing, there isn't much need for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times either and those are also bleeding out.

I would argue the solution would be for "journalists" to actually like compete and report on different things and try to break news and give new insights instead of all being part of the same propaganda apparatus but my guess is that solution wouldn't be accepted today. So the media keeps dying. C'est la vie, I guess.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The issue with the media is that it has devolved into a pure propaganda outlet which speaks only with one voice and they all say the same thing. When this happens, well you don't need 75 different propaganda outlets. You only need 1. So the New York Times is flourishing, everything else is dying. Vice, Buzzfeed, etc. nobody needs 37 different Internet propaganda outlets all screaming the same thing. This is even a problem for newspapers, when all newspapers are screaming the same thing, there isn't much need for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times either and those are also bleeding out.

I would argue the solution would be for "journalists" to actually like compete and report on different things and try to break news and give new insights instead of all being part of the same propaganda apparatus but my guess is that solution wouldn't be accepted today. So the media keeps dying. C'est la vie, I guess.
Like any industry, it gets saturated. So even for the internet it gets to a point there's only so any users and hours in the day to spread their eyeballs across the million news sites, social media profiles and Tik Tok videos. It's like those articles that would say internet content is doubling every 3 years or whatever. Ok, maybe that's true, but are users hours tripling to keep up? Doubt it.

Think if it like microwave ovens. I'm sure back in the 80s when every home started itching to buy one the growth in sales was huge. I dont think in 2024, microwaves sales are exactly knocking anyone's socks off. It's very likely a steady saturated market of mostly people buying a new one when their existing one breaks after 10 years. So if microwave makers are tripling units made, they are going to get into deep shit. So you got to adjust.

Put it this way. If random nobodies doing Twitter and Tik Tok can get tons of followers and views over media sites with head offices and payrolls, it goes to show the average person just wants to be entertained regardless of who it is doing it. So for all the media employees crying their company is sinking and pink slips are coming soon, you media employees just got squeezed out by endless Joe Bobs and Sally Maes doing videos after dinner for shits and giggles for free. People would rather watch them than read content and websites run by payrolled content creators and webmasters. So no matter how high brow the bloggers and journalists think they are worth, they are really not. Anyone can be entertaining.
 
Last edited:

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
The issue with the media is that it has devolved into a pure propaganda outlet which speaks only with one voice and they all say the same thing. When this happens, well you don't need 75 different propaganda outlets. You only need 1. So the New York Times is flourishing, everything else is dying. Vice, Buzzfeed, etc. nobody needs 37 different Internet propaganda outlets all screaming the same thing. This is even a problem for newspapers, when all newspapers are screaming the same thing, there isn't much need for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times either and those are also bleeding out.

I would argue the solution would be for "journalists" to actually like compete and report on different things and try to break news and give new insights instead of all being part of the same propaganda apparatus but my guess is that solution wouldn't be accepted today. So the media keeps dying. C'est la vie, I guess.

This is as much a propaganda piece as you're claiming "the media" is, I'm afraid.

The biggest problem that journalism faces is that doing it well is expensive. And that audiences aren't prepared to pay for it.
 

Neon Xenon

Member
Vice was a news outlet that I genuinely liked...over a decade ago. The Vice Guide to North Korea was one of the most interesting documentary videos I had watched at the time. I would check on their main page and see some of their news pieces for a while after that.

I can't pinpoint the exact time that it happened, but everything I would see of Vice being being shared on Twitter, etc. made it seem like the entire outlet devolved into "Buzzfeed but somehow even worse". Every problem with online news media -- very obvious flamebaiting, the churning out of low-effort slop, misinformation -- all rolled into one.

There's a couple of videos by friendlyjordies about Vice where he did a good job of summing up why the outlet has been trash for so long.

 

StueyDuck

Member
They had to make come cutbacks recently. So they are also in a tough spot.
It might be be too long before we hear about them closing down.
they truly are one of the last holdouts though, i think once their gone and a few others we can finally declare a victory for intelligence and normalcy
 
Last edited:
Alas, the "Solution" folks will take from this are to better align with fringe ideology, double down on shock journalism, butter up to DEI/ESG $$$ providers, and more clickbait.

The clear solution is integrity, objectivity, positivity, common interest, and a focus on humanity over sensationalism. When can I create an A.I. Walter Cronkite?


....with big tits, of course!
Sadly, I think you're right.

Everyone says they want proper journalism but what gets clicks is either 'black, Muslim trannies are trying to groom your kids' or 'the white man is gonna lynch you'.

...and big tits, or course!
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sadly, I think you're right.

Everyone says they want proper journalism but what gets clicks is either 'black, Muslim trannies are trying to groom your kids' or 'the white man is gonna lynch you'.

...and big tits, or course!
Likely true. I'm going to assume baity headliners get clicks. If they didnt they wouldnt do it. All i know is those baity threads I'd click on long time ago I skip because I know if I click it it will be something stupid or not newsworthy or it'll lead to a link with a million other pages before you get to the news bit you actually wanted to read. Forget it.

People should holistically choose content that isnt so obviously stupid or baity.

It's like me checking business articles. Trust me guys, DO NOT bother clicking any Motley Fool or similar link saying stuff like "This stock will make you a millionaire!" It'll be some dumb article written by a blogger trying to prop up his shitty penny stock he's pumping. You'd think the guy would have a robust article about making money doing long term investing in establishment stocks. Instead he'll show 3 penny stocks under $1.00, losing shit loads of money, going down the drain, and his insight is they will all go to $10. Avoid that shit. Just like avoid baity journalism junk where some freelancer is hoping to get clicks so he gets paid $50 for the day from a website.
 
Likely true. I'm going to assume baity headliners get clicks. If they didnt they wouldnt do it. All i know is those baity threads I'd click on long time ago I skip because I know if I click it it will be something stupid or not newsworthy or it'll lead to a link with a million other pages before you get to the news bit you actually wanted to read. Forget it.

People should holistically choose content that isnt so obviously stupid or baity.

It's like me checking business articles. Trust me guys, DO NOT bother clicking any Motley Fool or similar link saying stuff like "This stock will make you a millionaire!" It'll be some dumb article written by a blogger trying to prop up his shitty penny stock he's pumping. You'd think the guy would have a robust article about making money doing long term investing in establishment stocks. Instead he'll show 3 penny stocks under $1.00, losing shit loads of money, going down the drain, and his insight is they will all go to $10. Avoid that shit. Just like avoid baity journalism junk where some freelancer is hoping to get clicks so he gets paid $50 for the day from a website.
AI will be able to churn this stuff out better than humans soon anyways.

If human "journalism" wants to survive, they'll need to actually produce content that adds value instead of destroys it.
 

Drew1440

Member
Another one bites the dust, though I expected Buzzfeed to fold before VICE did. I was surprised to hear that Gavin McInnes was the one who originally started VICE, pretty interesting story listening to how it all started.

 

Mesousa

Banned
Vice used to be legit.

It was our generations Nat Geo or Journeyman pictures.

Media itself is dying now though. Its hard to make something profitable.
 
Vice used to be legit.

It was our generations Nat Geo or Journeyman pictures.

Media itself is dying now though. Its hard to make something profitable.
The early early days of Vice were amazing gonzo journalism, I remember that one guy who was livestreaming walking through the middle of a riot until he literally got his phone grabbed out of his hand and stolen by a passing rioter

Too bad how it turned out for them I guess
 

Mesousa

Banned
The early early days of Vice were amazing gonzo journalism, I remember that one guy who was livestreaming walking through the middle of a riot until he literally got his phone grabbed out of his hand and stolen by a passing rioter

Too bad how it turned out for them I guess
Yea it was fantastic, it had to change though because despite how awesome it was that wasnt turning a profit for them.
 
Top Bottom