The cycle of manufactured coverage

How a blog turns its own need for traffic into a story the public then treats as real.

Ryan Holiday's framework, from Trust Me, I'm Lying, pp. 18 to 125.

Need
Blogs need things to cover, and traffic rises when something big is on.
Mismatch
Reality does not line up with that need, as with an election that is still far away.
Creation
Blogs create the story anyway, such as an early candidate.
Reification
The coverage turns the subject into the real thing, and mass media legitimise it.
Payoff
Blogs profit and the public loses.

From chapter: Book One: Feeding The Monster: How Blogs Work, pp. 18–125

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