The Fight for Eyeballs

Net news, as Matt Drudge, puts it, is a &s;fight for eyeballs&s;. And what wins the eyeball is fast news and &s;pirate news&s; - stories that flout constraints. If Drudge has a role model in traditional journalism it seems to be Walter Winchell. Drudge drives a Metro Geo, the LA equivalent of Del Boy&s;s Robin Reliant. Drudge has a regular feature on Fox News. Like Osama Bin Laden in his cave, Drudge had made the White House quake. Drudge believes that as TV ultimately served the movies, &s;the Internet will save the news business.&s; Drudge&s;s website clocked up a record number of hits and triggered a feeding frenzy in the in on the act by releasing extracts from the Tripp tapes on their website. The Drudge report take the form of Man Dredge’s &s;scoop&s;, accompanied by a gateway-link service to a hundred or so other proprietary news services and syndicated columnists.

Computer Science · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Influence and Politics · Media Studies and Communication