We Want Media

The blogosphere is in uproar calling it “tasteless,” “crude,” even “creepy.” According to the Times Colonist (don’t ask why I’m linking to a Canadian news outlet), over the past week news organizations such as CNN and The New York Times were scooping up keywords on top search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo by shelling out the money.

This may seem like a normal thing to some, but the keywords that these news companies were vying for were phrases such as “Virginia Tech Shooter” or “student shooting.” So, basically, if you typed in “student shooting” into a search engine such as Google over the past few days, on the left would be the natural search results, while on the right, under sponsored links, would be ads from companies such as CNN, The New York Times, etc., encouraging you to visit their sites to get up to the minute coverage, or in-depth information on what was going on at the VA Tech campus. In an attempt to boost traffic to their various websites, news companies paid top dollar to search engines to secure these keywords.

Many bloggers are downright disgusted with the tactics news organization are using to get more clicks to their websites. They feel that no one should be profiting from the Virgina Tech tragedy. Some see these as a dirty trick but who ever said the world of business was clean? As much as news organizations are out there to produce news, they are also in it for the money and click thrus on their websites mean advertising dollars.

In our day and age, when we want information our butts turn to Google or Yahoo. Typing in key phrases will led you to a plethora of news. We don’t always look directly to The New York Times or other news organizations to get information. Because of this, they need to get their name and what they are covering out there. These companies are in the business of news and in this situation, I believe that they are providing a service to the public that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Their means of gaining attention in this specific case may be questionable. But if they are producing quality journalism, is it wrong that they are tooting their own horn?

Well, the blogging world definitely thinks so, and it looks like their whining has paid off. Type in “Virginia Tech Shooting” into Google today, and you’ll see an eerie absence of ads under the sponsored link section.

One point for the blogosphere.