Hello everyone,
Reddit just announced the launch of its new news site, Upvoted. The company says that each post will come straight from the user-generated content world of Reddit itself. An interesting thing to note is the fact that comments will not be enabled on this new website.
With the ban earlier this summer on subreddits that encouraged hate speech toward certain groups, it appears Reddit is trying to nip potential conflicts among users and bad publicity in the bud by not enabling a comment feature altogether. Frequently heralded as the "last bastion of free speech" in the world, Reddit seems to be taking a conservative approach to its new features.
I am interested in the introduction of this feature particularly as it applies to the engagement of its users. This is very obviously a strategically motivated business move to generate good publicity after the summer debacle and departure of the interim CEO Ellen Pao. Not only that, but the article I have placed below notes how a lot of user-generated content winds up being taken and used by other news agencies. It also represents a new move into advertising, as advertisers will pay writers to write articles related to whatever it is they are advertising, similar to how Buzzfeed posts are sponsored by various companies. Previously, the site relied on banner advertisements, and I'm not sure how I feel about entire posts being linked to businesses. Is it really user-generated content anymore if some of the writers are being spurred by an economic incentive? For me, it seems to taint the idea of "free speech," because some of the articles are literally no longer free, as they were produced with money in mind. I remember expressing this sentiment when Buzzfeed shifted to largely sponsored content and I feel similarly now. However, I do think the move to include sponsored content on a new website entirely is a smart one if they felt a strong need for it. Had they introduced sponsored content on Reddit itself, I'm sure there would've been backlash, given Reddit's status as an icon of internet culture.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/06/technology/reddit-new-site-upvoted/index.html
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