Why Rickrolling Is Bad for You

The other day a message popped up on Twitter. Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at New York University, asked–in all seriousness, and innocence–”I know I sound clueless and that’s never pleasant, but…what in tarnation does ‘rickrolled’ mean?”

Oh, the temptation to reply with a classic of the genre. “Go on!” urged friends. “You have to! Never get a better chance!” Oh, the temptation to reply “There’s a really great example here” and append a link to–well, you know where. But I didn’t. (Don’t know what rickrolling is? Read up.) The reasons why are embedded in understanding the new currency that we deal in–certainly in the information industries, and especially journalism.

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