Thread by @BlackHC

eventbrite.co.uk/e/bbc-newshack…

BBC #newsHACK: Reaching Young Audiences

IE @BBC wants to figure out how to get young people addicted to checking the news (and maybe reinvent #clickbait?)
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"How can trusted news providers reach young audiences?

Participants will be asked to prototype a new format that addresses one or more news needs identified by our research."

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"These include:

* “News grazing”, or the habit of checking frequently for news updates throughout the day
* The need for news’ relevance to be clear and accessible
* The desire for human significance in reported news"

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SRSLY? Since when do we want to encourage the habit of frequently checking for news updates? Isn't this exactly what phone addiction is about?
Why does the @BBC want to encourage such behavior?
Have they not heard about the Time Well Spent movement?

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Isn't everyone (rightly so) criticizing @Google, @twitter, @facebook and co for previously trying to drive engagement at all costs? Having people frequently check their phones for meaningless news is not a good thing. It wastes their time. It breaks their focus.

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Maybe the @BBC could try to do clickbait. Clickbait is good at making a story's relevance clear and accessible.

Focusing on the human element in a story is also nothing but saying: let's focus on the emotional side of a story instead of what's actually happening.

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Maybe the @BBC should focus on educating young people to value good reporting and how to differentiate between good reporting and crap, and then provide them with good reporting and help them form good habits instead of trying to crater to the lowest common denominator.

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Big Tech has finally realized that engagement is not the final proxy and addictive behavior is not something to be encouraged, and now the media jumps on the band wagon... :/

It's especially bad that they are specifically targeting a young audience, too.

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