Ben Smith: I really do think the collapse of trust in institutions is maybe the existential crisis of this era because it really does destroy our ability to solve any collective action problem. Once again, the book is called Traffic. It's a great read. It is sort of the history of this era and it's worth knowing. Every era thinks that history is ending next week. Then one will be right.
Have clicks, likes, and shares driven media and democracy to the point of disrepair? Sean Illing is joined by Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor and the author of "Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral." Together, they discuss how newsrooms were transformed by social media and the pursuit of traffic, and what the future of the industry might look like.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Ben Smith (@semaforben), editor-in-chief of Semafor, author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral
References:
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Engineer: Patrick Boyd
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Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
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