Biggest news 2015 in search: an analysis.
Are people only looking for negative headlines?
News values state that “bad news is more newsworthy than good news” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_values). In how far is this suggestion true and how is it represented in the Google search trends worldwide?
In the beginning of the year the Oscars dominated the news media. Everybody was interested who won the golden trophy, who was nominated and who wore the best dress of the night. The most watched Youtube-Video of the Oscars is Eddie Redmayne’s emotional speech dedicated to everyone diseased with ALS. This could partly be because everybody wants to be moved and because of the popularity and authenticity of the actor.
What is more interesting is that there were by far more people outside of the US searching for the Oscars than the people inside. The countries with the highest interest being Poland, Slovenia, Nepal and Kazakhstan.
People worldwide also seem to be interested in different sport events, which took place in 2015. The most searched event was the Cricket World Cup, followed by the Rugby World Cup and the Women’s World Cup. Even though soccer is the most searched form of sport, it is interesting to see that when it comes to women’s soccer the interest is not as high.
Star Wars was also a key term in the 2015 search-charts. This might be reasoned with the Millions of fans who consistently watch every new episode of the movie. Even the trailer of the movie counts 65+ Million views, while everybody is asking the question in which chronology the episodes should be watched and who the hell Kylo Ren is. According to the search rates, the people of Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the United Kingdom seem to be the biggest fans of the movie.
Elizabeth ll. Became the longest reigning Queen in the history and that is something that many people were interested in. Why? — Because it’s the Queen, come on! While some seemed to be confused what the Queen does jobwise the most frequently asked question was how old the Queen is.
The year ended with the bad and sad news about the attacks in Paris. Almost 900 Million queries were made. People were in shock, anger and fear. People were interested in what happened, why it happened and whether it was safe to travel to Paris during that time. The video where the hostages left Bataclan was the most viewed.
Furthermore, the search results show the highest interest in Paris as a city in the history of Google.
To put it in a nutshell people are indeed “attracted” by bad news and they spread faster and wider than positive news. Nonetheless, people are also interested in positive headlines, especially when it comes to sport or entertainment events.
Sources: Google Trends (https://www.google.com/trends/2015/viz)
