The hype of Buzzfeed
BuzzFeed captures its audience’s attention with its variety of news and entertainment articles, quizzes, and videos. Alice Millerchip ’15
BuzzFeed, the highly-praised web sensation, has been buzzing through both cyberspace and the Convent of the Sacred Heart hallways. Since its launch in 2006, this social news and entertainment site has expanded its horizons to offer a variety of shareable content that attracts over 80 million viewers each month.
In the form of lists, videos, articles, and quizzes, BuzzFeed presents information on current political issues, business deals, sports fun-facts, music trends and more.
Alice Millerchip ’15
From lists like“50 Upside Down Dogs That Will Make Your Day Instantly Better,” to political articles such as “Sanctions Push To Punish Russia Over Ukraine Gains Steam,” BuzzFeed’s variety of entertaining and relevant content attracts Sacred Heart students and teachers alike.
“It’s a fun way to reconnect with literature or film in a way that makes you engage in it without feeling pressured to be questioned about it, or assessed in it,” Upper School English Teacher Dr. Cristina Baptista said.
Having previously co-founded the Huffington Post in 2005, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, Mr. Jonah Peretti, launched BuzzFeed as “an experimental lab that focused on tracking viral content and making things people wanted to share,” according to BuzzFeed.com.
With the help of BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief, Ben Smith, who joined the company in 2012, BuzzFeed has evolved to incorporate more political and business journalism into its wide mix of content. The journalistic style lures in young viewers who find the content relatable.
“BuzzFeed makes its news articles easy to understand,” junior Mary Grace Henry said. “For example, there was an article about the current events in Ukraine, and although the situation is complicated, the article was easy to grasp.”
The eye-catching graphics, content variety, and sheer addictiveness of the media sensation are among reasons why BuzzFeed’s revenue is expected to double in 2014 to $120 million, according to flashesandflames.com.
Mr. Smith revealed BuzzFeed’s secret to attaining success during the New York Press Club Foundation’s Annual Journalism Conference last October.
“A lot of what we have been investing in […] is hiring great reporters to go out and get stories and take things that are not yet on the Internet and put them on the Internet,” Mr. Smith said, according to a video on c-span.org.
As a result of this approach, BuzzFeed has received positive reviews from supporters who praise the company for revolutionizing how news and entertainment is displayed and shared on the Internet.
“It’s pretty neat that there is something that students find as equally entertaining as adults do,” Dr. Baptista said.
– Alice Millerchip, Co-Sports and Health Editor
Gail Casey • Apr 22, 2014 at 8:41 pm
Thank you very much for writing this article Alice – I have to admit to not knowing much about BuzzFeed before reading your article and I feel much more informed now!