At this point, many of us are familiar with the infamous list articles that have been pioneered by BuzzFeed and their ilk. These quick snappy pieces are good for a laugh, but they’re beginning to have a negative effect on other fields of journalism. Websites and publications are relying on lists to draw readers while sacrificing actual content. Here are the top eight reasons why the list article is killing journalism.
- They require no real thought. Anyone can throw a list together. Children of all ages do it every year at Christmas time. The gap between journalism and toddlers is not a gap that needs to be killed.
- It eliminates the need for a coherent argument. When one writes an actual article, their talking points need to lead into each other. Each idea should strengthen those that it precedes, as well as the ones it follows.
- They rely on quantity over quality. The list article is shifting the way in which journalism is measured. The quality of a list article is not measured by the strength of its arguments, but by the sheer number of arguments it can make, whether they contribute to the discussion or not. This is effectively showing young journalists that it is not about what you have to say, but about how loud you are able to shout.
- GIFS and Memes are more compelling than the actual words in the article. The most egregious list articles consist of twenty – something blurbs each with some pop-culture image that relates to the aforementioned blurb. I’m a big comic book fan, and love the blending of media when appropriate; however, in a journalistic setting, this is just sloppy. Including a reference to another work can strengthen ideas, but should not form the crux of one’s argument. It leans more towards plagiarism than it does to a loving allusion to a work.
- It promotes the false notion that skimming leads to sufficient comprehension. A list article outline all the big ideas for you, so why would you bother reading anything that wasn’t in bold print or next to a number? The temptation is understandable. The author didn’t put the work in, so why should you.
- They’re just lazy. Every time I see a list article, I see someone who is too lazy to write an actual article. The list article gives anybody with a computer the ability to be a journalist without having to bother with the trouble of fully articulating their ideas.
- They’re repetitive. Somewhere in the recent past, a well-meaning journalist must have published something along the lines of “26 reasons you should thank your mom on mother’s day” which begat something along the lines of “19 things you should thank your dad for this father’s day”, and a cycle was started. Not a day goes by where I don’t see an article that roughly says “X reasons why you don’t appreciate Y enough”. Every one of these articles basically boils down to “X person fills a common role present in my life and everybody else’s, and they’ve done so many things for me that make me feel good”. This applies to pretty much all of them. All I’ve learned is that pretty much everyone is a jerk.
- It’s making us dumb. If we keep pumping out thousands of list articles, we will effectively create a generation of writers who don’t actually write and readers who do not actually read. It was the exchange of knowledge and ideas, and our ability to challenge them that got humanity to this point.
