Human interest has always been part of journalism, especially the less serious papers. I think there has been a gradual dumbing down over the years anyway. For example I rarely struggle to understand the New Scientist articles these days, and need to reread them a few times.
clickbait
(on the Internet) content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page.
Journalism does seem to be very poor. I'd put it down to a complete lack of journalistic integrity and an inability to do the most cursory fact checking.
Whether the fact that meeja studies courses have morphed into Marxism for dummies classes, I wouldn't like to say.
Magazines have been using these tactics on their covers for years to encourage people to buy.
Certain tabloids have done so, too. Remember the double decker found on the moon?
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