Purpose: This study aims to explore students' interests in multimodal texts by focusing on videos of social issues. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 50 students in a first-year multilingual composition course were analyzed in two phases. Phase One examined 14 students' reasons for self-selecting videos for multimodal analysis essays in one section of the course. Phase Two explored 50 students' selected videos in four sections of the course across four semesters. The videos were classified as either problem- or solution-oriented to examine the students' interests. Findings: Analyzing the students' responses in Phase One revealed that most of the selected videos included solutions to a social problem, and the students advocated the compelling ways in which the characters therein dealt with those problems. The findings for Phase Two revealed that the students' selections were equally divided between problem- and solution-oriented videos. Nevertheless, a gradual increase in the selection of solution-oriented videos was observed over time. Practical implications: A significant implication of this study is that it can help teachers expand their understanding of interesting and meaningful texts and make more engaging and effective instructional decisions. Originality/value: The study contributes to the literature on text selection as it highlights students' inclination toward what type of learning content interests them.