As technology has evolved, media has transformed and migrated to a digital form. Buzzfeed is one example of how media innovation has helped start-ups to expand and become multinational businesses by allowing consumers to share their content.
Innovation in the media industry has an impact on all its dimensions; from the product generated to the content shared. For instance, Buzzfeed has gained popularity once they started publishing visual content on their platform. In this case, society has determined which technology is most suitable to use. In other words, Buzzfeed revamped an “outmoded” technology and transformed it to grab consumers’ attention. As David Edgerton mentioned in his book “The Shock of the Old”, “old” technologies are constantly being rediscovered and redeveloped into up-to-date versions to keep up with the everchanging society.
Steinberg focused on Buzzfeed’s availability of enhanced technology, which they used to continuously innovate their content and meet consumer demand. However, focusing on innovation has resulted in Buzzfeed hiring more people to track “trends” and keep generating “creative” content. In this way, Buzzfeed was able to make a profit from people’s addiction to technologies and need to stay up-to-date with the latest “trends”. However, Buzzfeed’s content was easy to imitate; which lead to laying off employees and cutting salaries.
In my opinion, the “new” technologies aren’t always better; actually, technology is a process of manipulating the material world for human purposes. It does not depend on the technology itself, but on what humans choose to do with it.
“Novelty is not new, but there are new things to say about it” (Edgerton, 2006). Buzzfeed had the advantage to develop a new product named “TASTY” based on consumer preferences by collecting their data. This new technological feature has helped Buzzfeed to study the interest of its customers, allowing consumers to choose which technology or machine to use and how much to use it.
Edgerton,D (2006) The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900. Oxford University Press; Illustrated Edition (August 2011)
