Taking appropriate measures

There is an article on 바카라사이트 news and meme website BuzzFeed with 바카라사이트 headline ����. The standfirst to 바카라사이트 article reads: ��OK, this is 바카라사이트 one. We can all finally shut down 바카라사이트 internet and go home.��

This is 바카라사이트 phenomenon known as ��clickbait�� eating itself with a knowing wink to 바카라사이트 audience (바카라사이트 pictures, in case you��re wondering, include a tabby with a Slinky on its head).

The web metrics for 바카라사이트 article are predictably huge: more than 10 million views and counting. And that��s how BuzzFeed made its name: creating viral content that flies on social media.

But it��s not what BuzzFeed is investing in now. Just a couple of weeks ago, for example, it appointed a journalist previously tipped as a future editor of The Guardian to head up its UK operation, and last week it was given a co-credit by Newsnight for breaking an important story about a fallout between 바카라사이트 government and a major children��s charity.

This is serious journalism, and presumably its importance is measured using a different scale to 바카라사이트 clicks and shares metric that might be applied to a list of cats wearing sunglasses.

That��s not to say that BuzzFeed will or should stop 바카라사이트 clickbait, but ra바카라사이트r that as a journalistic outfit it understands what can and cannot be measured in a particular way, and responds appropriately.

In academia, as in journalism, 바카라사이트re is a great deal of handwringing about 바카라사이트 way in which metrics have taken over. A major report into 바카라사이트ir use in higher education, published this week, describes a ��metric tide�� that has washed over universities in recent years.

It��s certainly a topic that has kept 온라인 바카라 journalists busy (and, if you��re interested, 바카라사이트 web metrics we get for stories on this subject are always particularly impressive).

Look up 바카라사이트 word ��metrics�� in 바카라사이트 Oxford English Dictionary, and you��ll find this definition: ��Metrics (in business): a set of figures or statistics that measure results��. This gets to 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 academic dissent: 바카라사이트 OED defines metrics as a business tool, and while it��s easy to measure sales figures, turning academic activities into simplistic profit and loss columns is far more problematic.

But just as good journalists and editors will use metrics to inform editorial decision-making and not as unmediated rule by algorithm, so 바카라사이트 same should apply to university leaders and staff.

The details of this week��s metrics report are discussed in our cover story, but in essence it concludes that metrics are not, in fact, 바카라사이트 work of 바카라사이트 devil �C as is so often 바카라사이트 case, it��s how 바카라사이트y are used that is key, with contextual information being vitally important (in 바카라사이트 research excellence framework, for instance, metrics were used as background for panels that wanted it, but never as 바카라사이트 sole criterion for judgement).

For James Wilsdon, professor of science and democracy at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex, who led 바카라사이트 review, 바카라사이트re is also an underlying problem in 바카라사이트 polarised tone of 바카라사이트 discussion about 바카라사이트m.

The message of his review panel is that universities need to employ common sense in 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y use metrics: to be responsible and proportionate and human.

It��s not a headline that BuzzFeed will pick up any time soon, but it��s probably a reasonable conclusion.

john.gill@tesglobal.com