Bad news leads the list of 2011 most-read online stories – Nashua Telegraph
When it comes to appreciating good news in the daily paper, or at least in the online version, the rule may be “do as I say, not as I do.”
People often tell us here at The Telegraph that we should run more good-news stories. Fair enough, except it seems people are more likely to point their Web browsers at nashuatelegraph.com to read about all the crimes, fires, accidents, business failures and sexual misbehavior they can find.
Check out some good news? Not just at the moment, thanks.
That is a slightly cynical response to a perusal of the list of the Telegraph’s 500 local online stories that got the most views in 2011.
The list is chock full of murders and court cases, fatal wrecks, businesses abruptly closing, arrests, disease and erotic peccadillos. Mayhem and the dark side of human nature are everywhere.
Stories about non-mayhem topics are few and far between – we count six in the top 50, and only if you include “couple sees UFO” and “Donald Trump holds court at Nashua Chamber” in the good-news column.
In fact, the first truly happy story on the list is the sighting of a black bear and her cubs in Nashua, which is No. 75 (between a sentencing for a fatal accident and a memorial series for a murder victim).
If that’s not good-newsy enough for you, there’s the tale of Nashua Garden’s EPSN commercial and its sandwich named after Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. It’s happy from start to finish, but it’s all the way down at No. 182.
The issue isn’t a lack of good-news stories. All year, The Telegraph and nashuatelegraph.com are bursting with stories, photos and videos of successful Eagle Scout projects, firefighters getting awarded for heroics, people doing astonishing works of charity, businesses growing and communities thriving.
If these were about you or your family, you’d proudly display them on the refrigerator. If they’re about other people, you don’t seem to click.
Why not? Perhaps it’s just human nature. After all, what kind of gossip do you follow most intently: Tales of a misbehaving relative or tales of an award-winning relative?
Or perhaps it’s the attraction of novelty. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” has the famous opening line “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Might the same thing be true for happy and unhappy news stories?
Or perhaps it’s the Internet. Maybe readers of the print paper read lots of good news, but there’s something about reading The Telegraph on a computer screen that changes their behavior. It’s hard to say, because the only way to know is to ask readers, and self-reported behavior is always suspect.
Whatever the reason, though, we’re not letting this list change our judgment. There has been no management decree to write about more mayhem, or pressure to find the unhappy nugget in a happy story.
Perhaps human nature will change and next year’s list will be headed by a story about puppies and kittens and noble behavior and happy families.
But don’t hold your breath.
David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.
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