Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
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Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#2Great article. Stories also change under time and press engagement. Some of these may be feedback loop outcomes (cuomo) where others (spacex land explode story) i don't think are.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#3If you're interested in observing this in realtime, there's a great Twitter account called @nyt_diff[0] that automatically posts when headlines on the front page change. Really cool to watch articles get updated as stories evolve. It's particularly interesting to witness headline writers grapple with how and how much to editorialize.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#4Valuable anecdata. News is defined by conflict, (literally, no conflict = not news) and this shows how headlines that express the most conflict get the most clicks.
The integrity issues come up when even though the facts reported are real, the conflict that frames them is manufactured - and this is why people reject news. They don't reject it because of fake facts, they reject it because of fake conflict. When I want the real news, I go to fringe websites, because they get the real conflict right, and if I need details and facts, I can look those up. The reason they get the real conflict right is because by definition the fringe lives in that conflict, and they are the real anti-establishment that creates a counter balance narrative, whereas a conflict produced by setting mundane events and facts against the backdrop of an ideology designed to manufacture conflict is unreadable tripe.
If I needed to sustain the dissonance of establishment narratives, I would read the NYTimes to keep up the appearances, but since my livelihood and aspirations do not depend on that, I have the freedom not to engage it. If you think you are being played and manipulated, watching these A/B tests should be enlightening.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#5"And yet it rarely attracts the kind of close scrutiny of, say, a Fox News. And that’s totally reasonable! Fox News is an absurd clown show and deserves every criticism it gets"
I find it comical that any write-up critical of a left wing organization needs to include something like this to avoid being flagged, down-voted, whatever, on the platform its being posted on.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#6Should a news source be optimizing for engagement, or for accuracy in communicating facts? I understand it's a business, but it's analogous to a bakery that labels all its goods as its best-selling items, only to confuse and disappoint the buyer when they open the box and find something different inside. It may sell that product that time, but it goes against the purpose of the organization as a whole, and doesn't seem like a sustainable practice.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#7Should a news source be optimizing for engagement, or for accuracy in communicating facts? I understand it's a business, but it's analogous to a bakery that labels all its goods as its best-selling items, only to confuse and disappoint the buyer when they open the box and find something different inside. It may sell that product that time, but it goes against the purpose of the organization as a whole, and doesn't se…
This is my takeaway. There is a huge incentive for the media to make things more sensational or dramatic because it drives clicks and views.
I might also argue that online news drives this more so than print - with print you tend to buy the paper based on the totality of their reporting and reputation versus a zero-cost click of a headline on your screen.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#8Valuable anecdata. News is defined by conflict, (literally, no conflict = not news) and this shows how headlines that express the most conflict get the most clicks. The integrity issues come up when even though the facts reported are real, the conflict that frames them is manufactured - and this is why people reject news. They don't reject it because of fake facts, they reject it because of fake conflict. When I want…
Meh. This is the narrative of Marx and Foucault, and one I think is demonstrably false.
For multiple counter-examples, see pretty much everything on https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#9Should a news source be optimizing for engagement, or for accuracy in communicating facts? I understand it's a business, but it's analogous to a bakery that labels all its goods as its best-selling items, only to confuse and disappoint the buyer when they open the box and find something different inside. It may sell that product that time, but it goes against the purpose of the organization as a whole, and doesn't se…
It’s fundamentally possible to have both. Although, yes, it’s very tempting to sacrifice one for the other, once you start to optimize.
Re: Investigating how the New York Times A/B tests their headlines
#10Should a news source be optimizing for engagement, or for accuracy in communicating facts? I understand it's a business, but it's analogous to a bakery that labels all its goods as its best-selling items, only to confuse and disappoint the buyer when they open the box and find something different inside. It may sell that product that time, but it goes against the purpose of the organization as a whole, and doesn't se…
Is it not the goal of a headline to engage?