Psychedelic drugs, sex fetishes, depression, and political movements; these are only a few of the controversial topics Vice News explores and documents. It is a dark fusion between The New York Times’ transparent reporting and BuzzFeed’s use of memes and GIF’s. However, it differs in the way it shares its stories with its twenty- something- Millenial targeted audience. Fearless journalists use satire, sarcasm and curse words to expose the excluded, provocative and weird stories news outlets seem to dismiss.
At first glance, Vice News’ homepage looks like a blog, not a news website. The side bar has a list of topics, yet the titles are not the typical “news”, “world”, “health”, and “science” options regular news outlets offer. Vice’s side bar allows the audience to choose between reading news and watching short documentaries. The main issues to choose from vary from politics and LGBTQ related news to challenging topics such as drugs and NSFW (not safe for work). The articles and main stories’ headlines are all the same size and placed in order of publication, which suggests Vice’s pursuit for equality and democracy.
However, democracy is not a synonym of neutrality. Vice’s outspoken and, as shown in many of its stories, biased news reporting raises the question whether its partiality is as extreme as the alt-right’s news outlets. Even though Vice News shines light on corruption and shatters stereotypes, racism, and stigma, it does not present its news stories without first using derogatory language to disgrace the “enemy” or culpable of the story. By writing in such a blatantly shocking language that insults the other point of view, it illustrates Vice believes its opinion and researched stories are objectively the truth (even if the stories are indeed true) and will not tolerate publishing mainstream news as means to please society. This work ethic may seem like that of alt-right news outlets, but in contrast to news outlets like Breitbart, Vice reports are based on thorough research, reliable sources and actual (not alternative) facts that spread truth to create a more compassionate and conscious society.
The only difference is this unique news outlet welcomes and accepts everyone and everything: rare, new, modern, extreme, controversial, silly, thoughtful, and foul. Vice News is unapologetic and as history continues to progress, so will Vice.
Claudia Pascual 