where consumers are obtaining human-interest news. The prevalence of human-interest stories on social media is demonstrated through the popularity of the photo blog Humans of New York, a page which has over eighteen million Facebook likes and 10 million followers on Instagram. Humans of New York posts photos of New York citizens with an accompanying story about their life, and founder Brandon Stanton describes the purpose of the photo blog as being able "tell the story of the person right in front of me". The stories often evoke emotion from the reader and make them enjoy, sympathise or relate to the stories being told. It has been cited that the popularity of the human-interest story stems from a concept known as "emotional arousal", as the emotions of readers and viewers when consuming human-interest stories are heightened due to the stories purpose and contents. Dutch news media studies have discovered that the human-interest frame can impact the virality of a story, with the findings revealing that the human-interest frame increased Facebook shares by 33% compared to articles not utilising the human-interest perspective. Reaction The emotional response and interest the human-interest story draws from its consumers are reasons why the human-interest story is a widely utilised form of news media. The reception of the human-interest story has been mixed by both its audience and scholars alike. Studies from scholars reveal that when overused or given too much significance, the human-interest story can lose engagement from its viewers. This opposition is also held by journalism instructor Perry Parks, who believes the emergence of the human-interest story has led to a distinct split between "hard" news and human-interest "soft" news, and that in order for significant news to maintain its importance the viewer must separate their emotions from the broadcast. In an article from the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald this view is supported as the article's publisher Chloe Smethurst explains that the over exposure of human-interest stories have led real pieces of news to be discouraged or taken less seriously. However, The Sydney Morning Herald also puts forward the notion that the lighter moments of news can make a viewer's overall experience significantly more enjoyable and entertaining. This follows the traditional view that the human-interest stories purpose is to take the audience's attention away from the "hard news" supplied by the reporting of current events and often provide a light-hearted segment for