This doesn’t necessarily mean these are the stories most people are reading. The gossip articles (or "fluff" pieces) often out-perform news items in pageviews, often because that is what people are searching for. But the tide may be changing.
The incentive to share quality content is simple: A person may be more likely to read gossip, but they may share a news piece to shape their followers’ perception of them. They may even view it as a public service. I tend to believe it’s usually the former r ather than the more altruistic latter. As a result, news organizations producing quality journalism are being rewarded with accelerated growth in social referral traffic — in some cases, growing at a much faster pace than search referrals. More notably, social media is enabling the citizenry to be active participants in producing journalism by giving them platforms to publish to the social audience. This has made journalism more efficient, and in many ways enhanced the quality of storytelling.
Searching for Quality
The social filter for content has been around for a long time on the web, but prior to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it was conducted more privately via email messages or impersonal recommendations from a search algorithm.
The public perception was a non-factor, and users were more likely to share softer stories or those based on utility. There was a trust factor between the sharer and the recipient. Before, you were just sharing that...
