There are any number of subjects that newspaper editors know will stir up plenty of righteous indignation amongst their readers, which in the age of the trollumnist provides a pretty simple recipe for a huge number of comments and plenty of associated pageviews. The subjects can range from contentious political issues like climate change or asylum seekers, to other areas with their own set of prejudices, where people will valiantly rush to the trenches to defend their side of the argument, like cyclists or suburban car culture.
The trick is to pick the right topic for your readership and then throw it out every now and again, like a fisherman carefully placing a lure in his prey’s strike zone. The art is to know how often to cast, so that your reheated left-overs might be passed off as something new.
Fairfax’s National Times seems to have picked a winner with the topic of bossy mums with huge prams, but I think that their reheating schedule could do with some fine tuning.
Today, Amy Stockwell told us all how much she hates big prams and the attitudes of people who push them, accompanied by a very funny illustration, which generated lots of pro and anti-pram comments.
Just like last month, when Catherine Deveny told us all how much she hates big prams and the attitudes of people who push them, accompanied by a very funny illustration, which generated lots of pro and anti-pram comments.
I look forward to seeing who’ll take up the pram hater baton in the coming weeks.
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