I don't know if that is a psychological quirk - it seems pretty rational to me. We are more affected by events that happen close to us than those that happen far away, so instinctively finding local events more interesting than distant ones seems like what I'd expect[0].

[0] Not that my expectation has any weight, I have close to zero knowledge of psychology.

Anecdotal: I felt much more connected to Kurt Vonnegut's writing knowing that I had walked the same streets as him. The cultural aspects of his characters hit differently being able to match it to people I had met in similar places, albeit at different times.

It was a really strange feeling to read through Asimov and get to Robots and Empire, where the story, having ranged throughout a galactic empire in the far-flung future, follows the characters not just to Earth but to Three Mile Island — a place I had seen before! A place less than an hour a way from my hometown! It made the story feel more connected to my own life in a way that I was not expecting.

I think¹ it is more likely just a function of how we judge danger. Something local could be relevant to us now (if it were ongoing, or was likely to occur again, or affects/affected someone we care about), something far away might be relevant to us later. Nearby or approaching animal sounds? Definitely pay attention. More distant animal sounds? Maybe keep an ear on that. A tale of animal sounds in the next valley? Only take much note if it is part of an otherwise interesting/entertaining story.

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[1] caveat: I am in no way a biologist, sociologist, nor psychiatrist - this pondering may be complete bunkum

Definitely. I read a few articles top to bottom that I normally wouldn't have even bothered to look up on real Wikipedia, learned some cool local lore.

I think it's an odd side-effect of our built-in prejudice to value our tribe over strangers, which is a safety feature in all social animals.

"A plane crash in <other country> killed all passengers, including 2 from <our country>" is a fairly common news styling.

One of the nearest articles to me is also a random plane crash, lol.

There is a Stalin quote to this effect

> otherwise banal articles

I don't think it is quite banal. The focus is on distance, with distance being local. There is IMO nothing banal about that. And the article linked in is minimal rather than banal. (Also good thing you did not forget the 'b' there.)

You can of course assume everything to have a manipulative focus, but I don't see it here.