{"id":8732,"date":"2017-10-12T01:03:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T01:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/this-is-why\/"},"modified":"2017-10-12T01:03:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T01:03:12","slug":"this-is-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/critique\/2017\/10\/12\/8732\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Why\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mass media have almost completely migrated to the space most for the masses: social networking sites. They find their target in, say, Facebook and invite them to read their content in Facebook itself, knowing full well that if the invitation is not accepted, the news story won\u2019t be read (or will be read very less).<\/p>\n

In general, \u201cinvitation\u201d is the most suitable word to describe the media outlet\u2013audience relationship. The media outlet is trying through different steps and at various cost to be a pleasant inviting party.<\/p>\n

For example, it pleases and emphasizes being on its platform to the audience\u2019s subconscious expectations; ultimately in the process of inviting, it doesn\u2019t fail to emphasize its shortcomings, since on the backdrop of these shortcomings, the average reader feels simultaneously like a king (or queen) and Einstein (Levon Aronian).<\/p>\n

Unnoticed, but indefinitely transformed are both the structure and content of news stories.<\/p>\n

Chief editors are also marketing specialists: they want their news stories to have many views and shares, and they concentrate everything on the headline, since it is the first and often only piece of text that is actually read.<\/p>\n

In Facebook, only the headline and the first few lines are seen. And it turns out that is how the news stories are constructed: the headline and a few lines. So that everything becomes clear at once, and the reader doesn\u2019t exert effort to do a few more clicks.<\/p>\n

And so, emerging are headlines that are not only short and attractive, but also inviting and explanatory.<\/p>\n

Analyzing 100 million headlines in Twitter and Facebook, Buzzsumo<\/a> concluded that the most read and watched content were those that had in their headlines phrases such as \u201cjust imagine,\u201d \u201cwill make you,\u201d \u201cthe reason that you will read this,\u201d and \u201cthis is why\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

That is, an explanation is given why the story should be read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cafter knowing this\u2026\u201d prevails among the top headlines. It seems as though it\u2019s directed to the delicate strings of the reader\u2019s soul. After all, don\u2019t many people want something in them to change after reading something?<\/p>\n

The most widespread subtext is this: \u201cIf you don\u2019t read this, you\u2019ll miss something important.\u201d For example, the change within you.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about emotional headlines; these will always be appended (\u201cYour heart will melt after watching this,\u201d \u201cTears will flow,\u201d \u201cYou won\u2019t stop laughing,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll never be the same again,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll get goosebumps\u2026\u201d). Rather, I\u2019m talking about relationships. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s the impression that being created is a new explanatory news model, which justifies why you should read the story, since the causal chain (maybe) has been broken for the audience.<\/p>\n

The audience wants to understand why it should read the story. And the media outlet explains why. Or the opposite: from the beginning the media decided to explain, while the audience\u2019s infantile approach is the result of that. <\/p>\n

In any case, such a direct, blunt, and unconcealed invitation\/explanatory style helps to create the illusion that the audience is not homogeneous, since the explanation is personalized (the media is appealing not to the masses but to you, since you are unique and after reading the story, you\u2019ll become more unique).<\/p>\n

The headlining phrase \u201cAll Armenians must know this\u2026\u201d is also accepted in Armenian media, which is likewise personalized, since in modern Armenia it\u2019s fashionable to consider that the nation is one person (like the army).<\/p>\n

Offering and inviting are now not enough, you must explain why that offer is being made. In school, it was common to write an essay explaining what the author wanted to say with his work. <\/p>\n

The situation is practically the same. The media not only says, but also explains its words. Then adds those explanations in news headlines so that the reader is not suddenly mistaken. <\/p>\n

If the reader has been told the story is exciting, then he must get excited; if he\u2019s been told that he needs to cry, then he must cry; if he\u2019s been told that life is going to change, then it will change.<\/p>\n

Nune Hakhverdyan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mass media have almost completely migrated to the space most for the masses: social networking sites. They find their target in, say, Facebook and invite them to read their content in Facebook itself, knowing full well that if the invitation is not accepted, the news story won\u2019t be read (or will be read very less). Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","author_posts-nune-hakhverdyan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}