Saturday, April 15, 2023
One of the jobs at online clickbait portal MyLondon is 'Keeping an eye on next week's weather forecast in case the temperature goes up'. All sorts of speculative headlines can then be generated, driving traffic from people incapable of checking the weather forecast unaided.
On 6th April they tried New forecast shows exact dates of first ‘mini-heatwave’ of 2023, based solely on the fact that Easter Sunday would be "a toasty 16C" and the following Sunday "a roasting 17C". Nothing about temperatures in the mid-teens is toasty or roasting, but people clicked anyway.
On 8th April they tried City to feel like summer as BBC forecasts temperatures to soar, now suggesting 17°C on Easter Sunday and "lovely warm weather" a week later. Only the first of these had any ultimate truth in it, but people clicked anyway.
On 10th April they tried New BBC forecast reveals exact dates of ‘mini-heatwave’ with temperatures over 20C for first time in 2023, that exact date being Tuesday 18th April. Alas the forecast of 21°C would later prove over-optimistic and the current estimate for Tuesday is only 14°C, but people clicked anyway.
On 11th April they tried Brilliant map shows all the air conditioned Tube lines as 'mini heatwave' forecast, not that the Underground becomes a furnace at temperatures as low as 20°C. The map in question was produced five years ago by Geoff Marshall so didn't have Crossrail on it, plus journo Adam didn't get permission from Geoff to embed it, but this transgressive news story remains online because people clicked anyway.
On 12th April they upped the stakes with Exact date city will bask in 21C as hottest day of the year forecasted 'warmer than Ibiza', the exact date now being Monday 17th April. This was no longer the same 'exact date' they'd promised previously but accuracy is not a fundamental necessity at MyLondon, the only important thing is that people click anyway.
On 14th April, i.e. yesterday, they had to admit that the whole heatwave thing was bunk. The new headline was Hopes of April 'mini-heatwave' ruined as Met Office and BBC issue new forecasts, the gutting reality being that "temperatures are expected to reach highs of just 16C". Essentially it was an admission that their previous story was bolx, but it was still the most-read story on the MyLondon website because people clicked anyway.
That's six separate stories about a meteorological non-event, because this alas is the way online journalism tries to make a living these days.
Any old rubbish can become clickbait these days. For example in 2011 a tunnel beneath the A12 Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road was made one-way only. Yesterday this decade-old fact was confected into a news article entitled The London bus route that now has to cross a 6-lane dual carriageway as special bus lane is removed, a complete and utter non-story but people clicked anyway.
In other 'news', to save you clicking, I can reveal that...
» The pretty seaside village home to the ‘perfect Sunday roast’ most Londoners have never heard of which is worth the 5 hour drive ...is Staithes in North Yorkshire.
» The seriously beautiful but little known island 3 hours from London where you'll probably be the only tourist there ...is the Isle of Portland.
» The beautiful London commuter town with a name almost impossible to pronounce correctly first time ...is Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire.
» The seaside town you probably haven’t heard of named one of the UK’s best that’s worth the weirdly difficult journey ...is Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.
» The underrated seaside town that's almost impossible to spell correctly but named one of UK's best and worth the long drive from London ...is Aberystwyth.
Patronising clickbait is the worst clickbait.
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