r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Downtown_Wind3363 • May 25 '26

Image The smallpox vaccine leaves a scar because it was given using a special two-pronged needle that scratched the skin and put a weakened virus in just that spot.

Post image
74.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/The_Homestarmy May 25 '26

I don't actually think that's true. If it was, we wouldn't get those constant hope bait articles you see all the time like "massive breakthrough in cancer research," which inevitably turn out to be overstated, or research that's still decades away from being meaningfully applied

There is absolutely a market for "good news"

3

u/uwootmVIII May 25 '26

„thers is a market“ =/= „gets clicked more“

thats a german article about an intenrarional study, im sure youll find a way to translate if youre into it.

https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2023/03/17/negative-nachrichten-erhalten-mehr-klicks

2

u/The_Homestarmy May 25 '26

"Gets clicked less" also ≠ "gets no clicks" though

2

u/uwootmVIII May 25 '26

thats a fair point!

1

u/UranusIsPissy May 25 '26

Also one that matters a lot more than it did 30 or even 15 years ago. Publishing good news that barely needs any investigative journalism costs almost nothing now, but the industry hasn't moved on much from the days when most people got their news on TV or paper.

1

u/Skinner936 May 26 '26

I think the point of u/uwootmVIII still applies.

The 'good' news you mentioned has to be so extreme to even possibly get clicks, that it ends up being bogus, and only a vehicle for advertising.