In a world where social media such as Facebook, X and TikTok dominate, news media only have a few seconds to captivate readers and engage them in the news. That is why they closely monitor how the public consumes news through software such as SmartOcto and Google Analytics.

This analysis software converts user behavior into statistics such as clicks, likes and reading time, which are shown via flashy dashboards on the editorial floor. However, the intensive monitoring of these figures has led to an important misconception among journalists: namely that the public would not be interested in socially relevant news. The high click rates on sensational stories suggest that this type of news would be preferred. Yet we often see comments under those posts that seem to suggest the opposite: "Clickbait! Anything for money, shameful!"

Tricky issue

Although these measurement systems initially seemed promising as a solution to the financial and trust crisis in journalism, due to the direct line they provide to the public, they often backfire. A tricky issue is that these quantitative figures measure behaviour, but not the considerations underlying that behaviour.