Spoilers in the Age of Social Media, Binge-Viewing, and SEO
Apropos of last night's (very expected) "unexpected twist" on Game of Thrones, it's interesting to me to see how much the needs of journalistic outlets covering entertainment — SEO, heds, deks, and thumbnails, for example — continue to diverge from readers' needs, as outlets struggle to compete with one another for a chunk of the same readership.
Outraged viewers scream, "SPOILERS," "How could you?" and level outrage over photo selections, plot-centric heds, etc., while writers and editors are going to try to position their stories to get the best clickthrough/share rates via social and homepage. Often, that amounts to language or image selections that are highly specific, hyperbolic, and/or plot-centric.
Given the increasingly fierce level of competition for entertainment outlets, is there any solution that will please both outlets and readers, particularly in an age in which social media and binge-viewing are oddly both de rigueur?
And I’m especially curious — for TV reporters/critics, are you more or less sensitive to spoiler issues lately and do the demands of the trade to find and keep audience have anything to do with your choices in terms of story elements?