Blaming the rules of the game is sometimes appropriate, but not in the case. This is a free market for entertainment if there ever was one. Much freer than TV or movies.
The high-volume clicks that the author reviles? These consist of millions of individual consumer choices. The viewers decide what they want to watch. Apparently, this is what people like. Maybe old media didn't realize that and was wasting their money all along, or maybe tastes have just changed. But either way, if you don't like what's popular on YouTube (which I don't), you probably just have different tastes. Fortunately, there is plenty of diversity of YouTube, so you're not stuck with what's popular.
Which raises a question about this article: What exactly is the author criticizing? Surely it's not the lack of good content, because there is more of that than ever. It seems to be the mere popularity of bad content. But if bad content is popular, what of it? I don't mind. If it is truly bothersome, one can always take comfort in snobbery, which can be a lot of fun.
If Google were somehow distorting the market by deliberately promoting low-quality stuff, I'd blame the system. But based on the facts as stated by the author, I don't see any reason to believe that.
The high-volume clicks that the author reviles? These consist of millions of individual consumer choices. The viewers decide what they want to watch. Apparently, this is what people like. Maybe old media didn't realize that and was wasting their money all along, or maybe tastes have just changed. But either way, if you don't like what's popular on YouTube (which I don't), you probably just have different tastes. Fortunately, there is plenty of diversity of YouTube, so you're not stuck with what's popular.
Which raises a question about this article: What exactly is the author criticizing? Surely it's not the lack of good content, because there is more of that than ever. It seems to be the mere popularity of bad content. But if bad content is popular, what of it? I don't mind. If it is truly bothersome, one can always take comfort in snobbery, which can be a lot of fun.
If Google were somehow distorting the market by deliberately promoting low-quality stuff, I'd blame the system. But based on the facts as stated by the author, I don't see any reason to believe that.