Edumacation: Newspapers, are they a popularity contest?

Day 3,937, 07:53 • Published in Ireland United Kingdom • by Rusty D

Hey Ireland... It is edumacational time,

In the past I have done articles on the way you write an article and edit them, but today I want to do a quick one focusing on the way people show their appreciation of an article.

To show the different ways the audience can perceive and article, we shall look at the most recent eIreland articles, as shown on the 'Home' screen on eRep:



As you can see, due to the settings I have, it shows the last 5 news articles that were released in eIreland. Even before we click on it, we can see some important information...



I have numbered a few interesting points on this screen.

1: Here you can see the article title "100k Giveaway"

2: Here you can see the author "Rusty D"

3: Here you can see the amount of comments received on the article 8
This can very greatly, from comments in a 'give away article' or a 'controversial article' which tend to generate more comments

4: Here you can see the amount of votes received 11
Think of this, like a popularity contest. An article that is just pure dribble and spam like, will receive less votes. One that has been well received will get more votes. (For example the article "Heed the call" has a whopping 2 votes....)

5: Here you can see the 'age' of the article 4 Hours
By rights and article that has been in circulation for longer, should of gotten more of a readership and therefore votes/endorsements

Article: 100k Giveaway by Rusty D


Once you click on the article, at the very end, you can see the 'Endorsement' section. Here you will see the names of the people who have Endorsed the article with money.

Green: A name in a green box means they endorsed the article with 5cc

Blue: A name in a green box means they endorsed the article with 50cc

Purple: A name in a green box means they endorsed the article with 100cc

Endorsements tend to mean that a player agree's or supports an article, be it based on the content, it also can relate to a player endorsing the article for the content (the effort or work that went into it). This is another way to gauge the reception of said article. Note: some articles, like a lottery article, will call for endorsements as an 'entrance fee'

As we can see from the above image, an article that is 4 hours old, has received 3 different endorsements to a total value of 110cc

When we look at an older article:

Article The Dude Aviation Program by Releasethe Krakken


We can see it has not received any endorsements, even though it has been in circulation for more then a day.



I hope you have enjoyed this quick Edumacational article and I hope to keep writing a few more articles through out the week to spice up the media feed.

Rusty D,
Pointing out the obvious since June 01, 2014