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John F. Kennedy Sr.

Rieder: Is there life after The Dress?

Rem Rieder
USA TODAY
President John F. Kennedy delivers his famous "I am a Berliner" speech.

Back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy famously declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner" — I am a Berliner.

Late last week, the citizens of the United States declared pretty much in unison, "We are BuzzFeed."

The BuzzFeed-fueled Internet extravaganza that was The Dress was truly a remarkable moment. I always thought that if anyone could break the Internet, it would be the ubiquitous, all-powerful Kim Kardashian, who memorably tried to do just that. But a debate over the color of a dress worn by the bride's mom at a wedding on some seriously obscure Scottish isle?

That the Internet has a huge impact on our lives is not exactly breaking news. But this episode was breathtaking in its dimensions.

The initial post on the Web-shaking garment by BuzzFeed's wonderfully named Cates Holderness has attracted nearly 38 million, yes, 38 million, views — and counting. At one point, a record 670,000 people were on the site at the same time, BuzzFeed said. Those are serious numbers.

But more important, and more impressive, than the sheer statistics was the fact that The Dress became such a dominant topic. People everywhere, it seemed, were talking and tweeting about it, arguing passionately about black and blue vs. white and gold. And the traditional news media jumped into the fray with abundant coverage.

BuzzFeed has made its bones with its preternatural gift for determining what will go viral, what people will share, discovering and fostering Internet memes. While many also are playing that game now, The Dress shows that BuzzFeed has hardly lost its touch.

The AsapSCIENCE  YouTube video "What Colour Is This Dress? (SOLVED with SCIENCE)"  explains the the science behind the dress that broke the Internet.

But in the wake of the digital tsunami, BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith made a good point. What we've thought about in the past as a Web culture phenomenon today is simply a cultural phenomenon. There's no longer really a distinction. The Dress certainly nailed that.

So, perhaps someday we'll look back on The Dress as one of those iconic cultural moments: Elvis (Presley, not Costello or Grbac) on The Ed Sullivan Show, Walter Cronkite denouncing the war in Vietnam, the O.J. Bronco chase, Happy Days jumping the shark.

But imagine if someday we could all be as transfixed by a powerful piece of investigative journalism or a penetrating analysis as by a raging debate over true colors. Well, as Sigmund Freud might have said, a guy can dream, right?

It's been interesting to watch in recent years as two polar opposites have moved toward each other. Traditional news outlets, USA TODAY among them, have sought to capture the Internet zeitgeist, posting frequently on the digital phenomenon of the moment. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed, while hardly ignoring its listicles, has moved uptown, venturing into political coverage, foreign news, investigative reporting and longform journalism.

With all of the cutbacks in recent years at legacy news organizations, it's critical that new players come into the serious news business. That's why the advent of digital enterprises — from ProPublica to Politico to regional and hyperlocal sites across the nation — is so welcome.

As I write this, BuzzFeed's homepage features such fare as Are You More Anna Kendrick Or Kendrick Lamar? (because, as the deck points out, everyone has a little Kendrick in them) and 15 Sloth GIFs That Explain Your Entire Existence (complete with sloth photo — go figure, an animal picture on BuzzFeed).

But the top story on the site features an extensive interview with a British woman who had been jailed for sending threatening tweets to a feminist writer and a member of Parliament, a serious story on Internet bullying. And the site also includes such traditional fodder as pieces on the aftermath of the slaying of Russian dissident and the ramifications of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress.

Even in their much-lamented glory days, newspapers did not just feature Important News. Sports, comics and horoscopes, among many other things, were an important part of the mix — just ask anyone who ever canceled a comic strip with a rabid if declining following.

So don't expect stories like The Dress — or the plight of those runaway llamas in Arizona that attracted so much attention last week — to go away anytime soon.

And that's fine, just as long as media outfits, traditional and insurgent alike, don't lose sight of the stories that truly matter.

Men detain one of two quick-footed llamas after they dashed in and out of traffic before they were captured.
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