….the grist for the fourth estate's mill is and generally always has been "horrible" news.
The old media saw: "If it bleeds, it leads."
Fifteen people blown up in China or 20 drowned during the monsoon in Bangladesh means nothing (to other than family and friends) and has little if any meaning half a world away.
Maybe. There are lots of dreadful events that involve small numbers (e.g. a couple of dozen) that still move - such as bombed mosques. The shots of children in hospital with missing limbs, or a mother wailing over the loss of her family, are always hard to watch.
And 'being meaningful' doesn't have to involve death. I remember how ticked off I was with the visual reports of ISIS destroying ancient artifacts and centuries-old buildings. In those cases, nobody was killed.
