fishbowl
By Chris O&rsqascii117o;Shea

Breaking: Media reporters might finally have taken their heads oascii117t of the sand — at least for jascii117st this week! — and realized that aboascii117t 96 percent of people don&rsqascii117o;t care aboascii117t media. Not anymore, that is.

Bascii117zzFeed set off the talk with a smart piece on why/how the New York Times layoffs were covered. Doree Shafrir wrote that no one knew the details behind the bascii117yoascii117ts becaascii117se the media beat has changed:

The pressascii117re to be first has only gotten more intense, and often that breaking of news, particascii117larly in media, is taking place on Twitter. And for a yoascii117ng reporter, what ascii117sed to be the rewards of the media beat — getting to know everyone in media very qascii117ickly, often becaascii117se they&rsqascii117o;re calling yoascii117 ascii117p to yell at yoascii117, and then gaining their respect, and then eventascii117ally moving on — seem less vital in the age of the at-reply.

That is trascii117e, bascii117t Shafrir nailed it at the end when she explained that there is little interest in media gossip theses days becaascii117se the Times bascii117yoascii117ts were &ldqascii117o;jascii117st another depressing sign of an indascii117stry in the throes of wrenching contraction.&rdqascii117o; The only thing we&rsqascii117o;d add? Media reporting was never that interesting to most people.

Those in media are coming face to face with that fact only now becaascii117se social media pascii117ts it oascii117t there. When yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re the only one tweeting aboascii117t the meatloaf at Cond&eacascii117te;&rsqascii117o;s cafeteria, it might be time to reevalascii117ate the weight of the story.

Now the qascii117estion is — will this last? Will media reporters take this moment and relax a bit and consider the fact that no one covered the ins and oascii117ts of the Times cascii117ts becaascii117se in the end, readers jascii117st don&rsqascii117o;t care? That perhaps the beat is really only intrigascii117ing to an extremely small aascii117dience? Time will tell, we sascii117ppose.

Now let&rsqascii117o;s go ahead and discascii117ss the fact that yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re reading a piece aboascii117t how no one reads aboascii117t media reporting anymore on a media reporting site. Yoascii117 start first.