Tessa Sproule to launch contrarian site Vubble
Sproule, the former director of digital at CBC, is launching a new site that generates short videos that don’t align with users’ interests.
By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor
Tessa Sproule, the former director of digital at CBC, is launching a new site.
It sounds counterintuitive, but unlike Google and Facebook, which use algorithms that pull together content that caters to their visitors’ interests and opinions, Vubble—a combination of “video” and “bubble”—instead serves up short videos that run contrary to users’ interests as a way to get them out of their bubble.
Sproule explained the thinking in an article in Marketing Magazine with an example of a mass shooting. Her social media feeds would generate content with a similar stance to hers on gun control, but Vubble would instead offer a video showing why the right to bear arms is important for someone.
“I need to understand why a housewife in Washington feels she’s got to bring a loaded weapon with her into Walmart—she may have a really legitimate reason,” Sproule told Marketing Magazine. “It’s not going to change my opinion, but I need to understand that point of view. For a functioning democracy we need all citizens to be like that.”
Vubble is expected to launch in October.
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.
