Strange news means clickthroughs

Danny Westneat of The Seattle Times notes how the most-viewed article on the paper's site in 2005 was about a guy who died after having sex with a horse. He says:

As I look back at the year in news, it's clear I should have focused more on people having sex with horses.

Hilarious. What's more, several of the Times' other top-trafficked articles were follow-ups about the same story. Of course they were. People gravitate towards the strange, the unusual, and the misfortune of others.

In similar fashion to Danny's analysis, in 2004 I recapped the 31 most-clicked news articles on my station's site, and right at the top were stories about corruption within the local government and two cousins that got into a knife fight after arguing who could drink more. Basically, people embarrassing themselves. I wrote of the mental interest patterns exhibited by our users, evident in their clickthroughs, noting what kinds of stories drew readership:

• Stories where government officials made assertions or otherwise tasty comments about themselves or others
  
• Human interest events continuing to captivate, still proving people's genuine fascination with extraordinary human experiences. This was most evident in people doing great things, and conversely, human tragedy.
• Stories featuring outlandish situations brought on by a lack of basic common sense. People not only enjoy reading about the (mis)fortune of their neighbors, but also about the moments in life when people exercise questionable judgment.

It's the same mentality that promotes keywords like "nipple slip" to the top of so many search engine stat reports. While we as journalists strive to produce the best news stories we can with fair, objective coverage, people will always be driven to the odd. Largely because it's not happening to them. It's around this time of year that we're reminded that no matter how compelling our storytelling may be, despite our sincerest editorial skills, regardless of our interviewing savvy or ability as wordsmiths, people are always going to stare at the train wreck.

Auld Lang Syne.