Diversion

Every now and then some external guru comes into BBC News with a new matrix, segmenting news consumers and their reasons for turning to news outlets.  This is usually poor cover for 'giving the audience what they want' rather than 'what they need to know about'.  A current version of this matrix generously gives space for the sort of twaddle, dashcam clips, and old-style 'yellow press' headlines that pepper BBC News Online. The segment, one of six, is called "Divert" - "I am looking for a diversion that loosens the grip of my reality for a moment".

This morning BBC News Online's main page diverts with "Star describes growing up gay as Jehovah's Witness", "I'm offered sex as a favour because I'm disabled", and "I found out I had cancer when 36 weeks pregnant". 

As ever, the 'most-watched' is body-cam footage - a clip from Phoenix Police taken on Halloween. In second place, an old favourite from February, presumably promoted by an 'up next' BBC algorithm, hanging on to browsers 'looking for a diversion'.