It can seem like a lot of what this website is trying to do is gain the audiences’ attention. This is safe to assume due to the packaging process before letting a piece go online. I might not be so at packaging sometimes, but that is because I can tell when a package is trying to look good for me. I can usually get turned away from articles that would probably be the most interesting to me because the packaging is heavily suggesting, which means I don’t like being told what to read and when to read it. This meta-cognizant way of looking at this publication process is important because now THIS is the media AS WELL.

With self-creation being at the forefront of internet innovation, YouTube and other social media platforms have allowed anyone to do anything they want to online to make money. With original video content on YouTube, we have original written content for The Odyssey. So just the way YouTube is successful in allowing the creator to directly connect with the audience and compete with television entertainment, Odyssey is trying to do the same but with news and information.

Of course, we need major news outlets to do their job with the respect and responsibility of a reporter. This medium of voices painting a bigger picture together about the world that goes beyond objective fact and tries to understand subjectivity is what the future of news is going to look like. There are a few reasons why this medium is the future: Trump has had an effect on the public that has made truth itself something to question. This is dangerous because there are objective truths you cannot argue. Everything is up to interpretation for Trump, even simple numbers. We live in a Trump world where alternative facts have a place in our world. Another reason is that the public eventually goes to shift its interest to what interests people the most, and that is people. The final reason is that we have seen it happen before, it is happening on YouTube right now.

YouTube recently just had a bunch of advertisers pull their stuff because they thought their product was being advertised in front of racist content. Whether the advertisers have a claim is not for a college student like me to say, but this is scary because the free world of content creators and audience is being regulated by the advertisers now. So if your content is not making money, it’s because Youtube sees something wrong with what you’re doing. This causes them to demonetize videos and decide who makes money over others. Videos that aren’t completely PC could get shut down.