Star Wars: The Clickbait Awakens | Dean Burnett

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, you could still hear this barrel being scraped

Don't know if anyone's noticed, but there's a new Star Wars film out this week. They've tried to downplay it, but news still leaked out there subtly via all possible media platforms and product tie-ins. Of course, this being such a major cultural event means there's a lot of associated traffic revenue to be generated. Tying an article, however remotely, to a popular subject matter is just one of many tactics to increase online traffic, so of course there have been countless articles tenuously linked to Star Wars churned out. This has caused a great disturbance in the web, as if millions of search algorithms cried out in terror, and were suddenly" silenced.

And yes, this article is yet another one. A general email was sent around the Guardian Science Blog network recently asking if anyone have any Star Wars articles planned, which is diplomatic code for "We need frivolous but topical: Dean, earn your keep!" The problem with this is, such is the furore around Star Wars right now that pretty much every idea for a cash-in article has been done already. Even the science of Star Wars has been thoroughly covered.