Reddit has long acted as a sort of anti-media, with users getting much of their perception of the news from user comments rather than the actual articles. Now, massive community of user-generated news links is cozying up to the rest of the media world.
Reddit on Thursday said it would allow blogs and articles to embed posts from the site. So journalists and bloggers can now add Reddit content without having to rely on links and screenshots.
MORE: A Look Inside Imzy, the New ‘Safe Space’ Reddit Alternative
The addition of embedding may be Reddit’s way of strengthening ties with the media sites that often use the site for news. Reddit can finally get some of the credit it deserves as the plankton of the Internet ecosystem larger media often feeds off.
However, the combination of journalism and Reddit can be dangerous. Many stories on the web are based solely from Reddit comments as a source, using unverified stories from anonymous users often pulled from AskReddit threads.
Here’s a demo of the embed tool, coupled with an example of when sourcing Reddit goes wrong.
Journalists need to stop writing stories about Reddit comments. Sometimes people make shit up. Like me. from self
Uh, oh. It turns out anonymous Reddit users aren’t always truthful and BI fell for the ruse.
Or maybe, I’m the rube and fell for a fake story about a real story.
With convenient integration, we’ll no doubt see more Redditors getting the last laugh on journalists looking for an easy article.
