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An old one, but it keeps coming back to my mind every time I read a story about a new "trend" that isn't. Related: http://hubski.com/pub?id=5705
“I think we write trend stories because we think they’re news,” Shafer said in a phone interview. “We write bogus trend stories because we’re wrong, we’re lazy, and we’re mentally tardy.”
A good one. It's so easy to do, so very hard to verify, and at the same time, it gives relavence to an otherwise tangential story in a news context. -Personally, I'd rather hear more insights into things that weren't trends, but were just of interest.
Last night I was driving and listening to the radio, and the BBC did a piece on koala bear calls. It wasn't relevant to my life in the least, and yet, I appreciate getting some of those stories.
My guess is that the attempt to make all news relevant has to do with confusion between marketing and readership. Relevancy is a must for advertising. It's not a must for content.