The ONN's Successful Audience Exclusion

By 06/17/2008
The ONN's Successful Audience Exclusion

Together, we’ll make reading obsolete!” a cute, female cheered into the microphone after claiming the Webby for best writing on behalf of the Onion News Network. If the moving picture side of America’s Finest News Source keeps producing poignant political critiques and uncanny, straight-faced satire, it could definitely give the written word a run for its money.

 


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The fake news network was a crowd favorite at last week’s Webby Awards ceremony, taking home three Webbys and delivering some of the best speeches of the night. But what amuses me the most about The Onion and in its success in the web 2.0 world is its conspicuous rejection of audience participation.  While other sites and shows preach "community" and "interactivity"  as if it were gospel, The Onion has the following submission policy: 

The Onion neither publishes nor accepts letters form its readers. It is The Onions’ editorial policy that readers shall have no vice whatsoever and that The Onion newspaper shall be solely a one-way conduit of information. The editorial page is reserved for the exclusive use of the newspaper staff to advance whatever option or agenda it sees fit, or, in certain cases for paid advertorials by the business community.

It may be the exception that proves the rule, but the Onion News Network shows that not all successful video enterprises on the internet need be collaborative.

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