If you use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or just the internet, you are probably aware of the concept of clickbait. What is "clickbait?" Well, Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as follows:
something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest <It is difficult to remember a time when you could scroll through the social media outlet of your choice and not be bombarded with: You'll never believe what happened when … This is the cutest thing ever … This is the biggest mistake you can make … Take this quiz to see which character you are on … They are all classic clickbait models. And they are irritating as hell. There's no singular way to craft clickbait, but the essence is clear: Lure—no trick—readers to your site. — Emily Shire, Daily Beast, 14 July 2014> < … “clickbait,” those seductive Huffington Post-esque headlines that suck up your attention but don't deliver what they promise? — Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian (London), 10 Aug. 2013> < … there's an incentive to combine clickbait, to get people in, with strong content to keep them on the site. — Steve Hind, interviewed on National Public Radio, 10 Nov. 2013>
Lists and polls are common ways to get people to click on a headline. "All 50 States in the U.S., Ranked By Their Beer." "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." "The 100 Most Important Cat Pictures of All Time." That last one is from Buzzfeed, which claims it doesn't do clickbait because it "hasn't worked since 2009." If you say so.
Anyway, it appears that Business Law Prof Blog is deemed a "media outlet" by some enterprising public relations folks, so I get regular emails pitching books and polls and experts to write about. I rarely, if ever, use the material, but as a former public relations professional, I am willing to take a quick look to see if it's something of potential interest to our readers. This week, I got an email that caught my eye. It came with the subject line: 2015’s Best & Worst College Cities & Towns in America – WalletHub Study.
The overall top 10 college towns from this poll:
- Ann Arbor, MI
- College Station, TX
- Iowa City, IA
- Provo, UT
- Gainesville, FL
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Cambridge, MA
- Columbia, MO
Any list like this is subject to criticism (no way Gainesville, FL, is better than Athens, GA), but depending on the criteria, it can be valid. It's hard for me to argue about Ann Arbor. I met my wife in Ann Arbor, and it is a great city. Not sure it's number one, but okay.
This kind of list is great clickbait for me. I love college towns. I grew up in one: East Lansing, Michigan. And I have taught in three: State College, PA; Grand Forks, ND; and Morgantown, WV. There's something special to me about college towns, so I was curious to see how they made these rankings. First, of course, I started by looking at the list for some of my favorites. No East Lansing. No State College. No Grand Forks. No Morgantown. Two Big Ten schools and a Big Twelve school. Huh?
So I inquired about the methodology and I was told the data used was from the 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. Thus, cities that were not included in the Census 2014 ACS 1-year estimates data tables could not be included in the survey. So, I started looking for other cities with significant colleges that were not on the list. Here's a list of cities that were not included in the survey that I have identified so far, in alphabetical order. There are some pretty serious college towns on this list:
- Athens, OH
- Ames, IA
- Asheville, NC
- Auburn, AL
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Charlottesville, VA
- Clemson, SC
- College Park, MD
- Corvallis, OR
- East Lansing, MI
- Hanover, NH
- Huntington, WV
- Ithaca, NY
- Laramie, WY
- Manhattan, KS
- Morgantown, WV
- Moscow, ID
- Pleasant, MI
- New Brunswick–Piscataway, NJ
- Oxford, MS
- Oxford, OH
- Princeton, NJ
- Pullman, WA
- Stanford, CA
- Starkville, MS
- State College, PA (or University Park, PA)
- Stillwater, OK
- Storrs, CT
- West Lafayette, IN
- Williamsburg, VA
Every list will have it's flaws, and we can always debate how a study is run. The point is not to bash the study itself. I simply thought it worth pointing out that the input data is going to have a major impact on the output. So, for a study of top college towns in the 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, this is a good list. If one were trying to find a list of cities to do a mailing or other outreach to connect with college students, it might not be so hot. Or if one were thinking about retiring to a college town, a good number of top options would not be on this list.
The takeaway, in law, in business, and in life, your output is only as good as the data you put in. If the output doesn't seem quite right, go back and check in the inputs. Sometimes, you'll find the data just showed something unexpected. Other times, that data that was input might not have been complete or accurate enough to give good answers.