Patti Wolter, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, describes quizzes as a form of service journalism. “I would applaud quizzes that contain reporting and information,” she says. “We’re just talking about what packaging or wrapping makes it more likely that the reader will engage. In a world where all kinds of media, news or otherwise, are looking for different ways to get people to click on them, being creative about the format of stories is a solid strategy.”
In fact, the questionnaire format in particular may prove a better way to tell certain stories, according to Dowling. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal published a survey titled “What kind of voter are you?” to share the results of a research study. The Washington Post published “Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok?” to draw attention and help readers identify potentially harmful misinformation on social media.
Dowling says publishing information in questionnaire form can also add depth to the scope of reporting. “It forces you to look at things in a variety of ways. The questionnaire will have some kind of result that tells you there are other ways that others could have responded to that questionnaire. And so I think the sociological lesson is diversification. I think it’s healthy because it allows me to think about myself in relation to others.”
social Sciences
The ubiquity of online quizzes also offers media outlets a way to combat one of their most pressing challenges: the mass migration of readers to social media. The same institutions that promote quizzes are slowly losing its audience to social platforms, where news is just one of the many types of content on offer.
According to a study by church pew Published in April, 43 percent of American TikTok users say they get their news on TikTok. Pew also reportedIn February, those who get their news on social media cite convenience as the top benefit. “If, on any given day, I want to know what’s going on in the Middle East, I want to know what’s going on with Congress, I’m looking for a new recipe, I’m looking for a creative way to exercise,” Wolter says, “any media outlet wants me to satisfy as many of those elements as possible on their site.”
According to the same Pew study, 40 percent of Americans who get their information through social media expressed concern about the possibility of information being inaccurate. In theory, a news publication’s use of various storytelling formats should offer the same one-stop-shop convenience as social media, but offer content crafted to high editorial standards.
The migration to social media signals a failure by the news industry to reclaim the connection with readers that it has co-opted, says Rawiya Kameir, an associate professor of journalism at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. “At many publications, there’s no community in a comments section or other types of direct interaction that we see on social media,” she says, exposing the need to “figure out how to capture the community and bring it back to the publications themselves.”
Quizzes typically focus on lighthearted topics, allowing readers to momentarily step away from the often-distressing news cycle and engage in some introspection, even within the context of the news. “Are you ready to buy a home?” The questionnaire, for example, informs readers about relevant news related to home ownership, such as the current mortgage rate and the percentage of homes purchased with cash.
“We forget that many people also turn to these publications for entertainment, for learning, and for things other than purely life-or-death information,” says Kameir. “From the reader’s perspective, the benefits of quizzes are multiple. They’re fun, they’re interesting, they’re a way to understand ourselves and others a little bit better.”