Human interest
Human Interest ( Human interest ), commonly known in about as interested in Too Human , is the name given to areas of interest of many people (see yellow journalism , mass media ). This applies in particular without this interest being objectively justified, e.g. due to particular importance or topicality.
It is also common (mostly derogatory) to use human interest to refer to journalistic articles, films or other works whose topics are primarily oriented towards the expected audience interest or are geared towards a high quota . Often, in the opinion of the expressing critic, the level falls below a certain level.
These can be topics related to the partnership of celebrities, sexual areas or other topics that usually meet one or more of the following conditions:
- (Almost) everyone can have their say, that is, the topics are in the area of everyday experience.
- The topics arouse special emotions .
- The message deals with an absurdity or surprise that may also be perceived as funny. Classic example from journalism: "A dog bites a postman" is not interesting news. “A postman bites a dog”, on the other hand, is worth a message (even if objectively there is no message value ).
Sometimes, in a restrictive way, human interest is interpreted as an interest in the human rather than the interest of people .