Dead is Dead – Long live (Insert Something Else Here)

As we approach Halloween, many discuss the dead rising up in zombie form to terrorize the living. I feel sometimes we are walking among zombies. There are far too many trigger happy journalists or bloggers (if you still distinguish the two from each other) who are ready to close the coffin on a technology, a website or even the Web itself. That’s right, even the Web was pronounced dead earlier this year by Wired (The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet). I found that particularly amusing. Isn’t a physical magazine a medium that is supposed to be akin to carving words into stone tablets?

What is driving this ongoing  trend of calling things dead? Are these things truly zombies?  Mashable addressed this a few months ago after the Wired “Web is Dead” article came to light. I was personally set off this morning by this article stating that “SEO Is Dead, And The New King Is ‘SMO’” by Ben Elowitz. It wasn’t just the title of the article,  but it was a universal declaration that an entire tactic was dead, which it isn’t by the way. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not dead. The trend of calling something dead before it is really dead has officially “Jumped the Shark” in my eyes.

Urban Dictionary Reference – Jumped the Shark
Delightful YouTube Video of – Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzerelli – Actually “Jumping the Shark”

I could spend my time arguing the merits of Ben’s article, but I will not.  I could argue that in my opinion he is overstating the trajectory of certain social media trends. I don’t want to even broach that topic because it doesn’t tackle the real issue. The question I want to answer is why everyone is so trigger happy to call something dead?

Here are a few scenarios I have considered, please feel free to add your own:

1. Pageviews + Controversy = Money  –  The race to zero is in full swing.

One of the most obvious things to point to is that shock value sells. In the days of 140 character snipes or news snippets we have to get people’s attention fast. We try to convert them to a unique visitor and hopefully get them to click the banner or call to action. After all, their business is an ad model. It is their job to drive those actions. Pageviews drive advertising dollars and controversy always sells. This, in my opinion, is the type of journalism that if Edward R. Murrow was still alive (yes it is safe to say he is dead, I think) he would come after you with facts and details rather than salacious headlines more fit for the 1-8 item aisle at the supermarket.

2. The Prognosticator Effect

This is the second phenomenon: trying to guess ahead of the curve. This is something we all try to do – see what the trends are,  how they will impact the industry and so forth. People, however, have taken this from trend-spotting to something else. They now make universal declarations that something is no longer functional or viable to demonstrate their ability to spot a potential trend. Trend-spotting has become a roll of the dice action for many with very little true analysis. In many cases, no one can really “guess” correctly, because there are so many moving parts.  Many journalists try to second guess how consumers will act, sometimes only based on a small snippet of data or even worse due to their own bias/motivation. By playing this trend-spotting game too often you may get one hit or two. Assuming you get 1 in 10 right, you are still doing a disservice to your readership by misdirecting them 90% of the time and passing yourself off as a prognosticator.

3. I am an Expert Listen to Me

This is a hybrid of my Pageview or Prognosticator theory. The web has afforded unparalleled ability for anyone to claim “expert” status. In actual fact, it takes anyone only a few hours and a keyboard to share their thoughts on the world or trends (myself included). That is coupled with the phenomenon that once words are written on paper or screen they become more true or real. The nature of online journalism has become so loose, but this criticism isn’t just volleyed to the bloggers it is to “real” journalists too (yes I did just use the virtual equivalent of hand quotes). Sharing ideas is always a good exercise and welcome. However, expressing your views with virtual certainty and leaving little room for discussion is where I draw the line.

When Something is Really Dead – You can say it is Dead

When Toshiba and other HD-DVD supporters came out and said their format was dead – that was a legitimate instance where journalists could come out and use that headline. There are actually accepted times when people can claim something is dead. People jumping the gun on Flash is opposing example. As much as I agree that the iPad will cause an erosion of Flash use, Flash is still on roughly 90-95% of computers. No matter how people lap up and regurgitate what they are told to say, I would not consider that technology by any means dead!

Summary:

Now I realize the inherent irony of declaring that Dead is Dead in my title. I am sure some witty blogger, journalist or Twitterati is prepping a beautiful evisceration of this piece and then making the declaration that my blog is dead. I do think there is an inherent problem regarding the self-congratulating nature people write these headlines and titles to their blogs or articles. I think people fail to realize that the entire mood and trends of an industry rely upon the feedback of journalists and bloggers.  One should spend more time reporting the news than creating it to satisfy some of the needs I have outlined. I am sure this blog will incur the wrath of the zombie hoard but let’s have the conversation. I think it is worth having.

If you spot a Zombie these are the rules for dealing with them

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