Weird News

Did you hear the news about the stripper from the Gold Coast whose breast implants exploded while wrestling a crocodile? No? That’s probably because it never happened, and the story was never written. But rest assured, if it was a story, most of the traffic that goes through news sites in Australia would have read it.

It’s rather telling that days before a federal election, most of the news that the country seems to be interested in relates to sex, violence, and celebrity gossip. This isn’t an attempt to be judgmental about it at all - I’m guilty of clicking on the ‘interesting’ links as much as anyone else is – its simply an examination of the facts.

Let’s have a look at Sunday’s takings. In their top five stories, Australian news sites boast 10 stories out of 55 that are vaguely politics related, with half of those belonging to The Australian (which seems to be the sanctuary for those interested in politics). Other offerings include a top sex story at the Daily Telegraph (an alarmingly precise ‘I’ve had sex with 5000 men in 3285 days’), a similar enticement at news.com.au (worse ways to go with ‘”death by hooker” for sacked city banker’) and the colourful Adelaide Now temptation (‘bikie in bottle shop rampage’).

Continue reading "The news we want versus the news we get" »