Clickbait
ProblemChimp (Talk | contribs) m (→News: punctuation) |
(→News) |
||
| Line 26: | Line 26: | ||
*{{wpl|Western Journalism Center}} (conservative) | *{{wpl|Western Journalism Center}} (conservative) | ||
**To a lesser extent, the WJC's news site [[WND]], but the WesternJournalism.com website has more "you won't believe this" and "epic" type of headlines as opposed to WND, who as biased as they are ''try'' to have more serious headlines.<ref>Google search, "you won't believe" site:WesternJournalism.com</ref> | **To a lesser extent, the WJC's news site [[WND]], but the WesternJournalism.com website has more "you won't believe this" and "epic" type of headlines as opposed to WND, who as biased as they are ''try'' to have more serious headlines.<ref>Google search, "you won't believe" site:WesternJournalism.com</ref> | ||
| + | *[http://www.youngcons.com/ Young Conservatives]<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20150117072729/http://www.youngcons.com/ Internet Archive capture from Jan. 16, 2015] - a LOT of examples there.</reF> | ||
'''KoolKat's Korollary''' states: If a headline contains a word like surprising, amazing or shocking - you won't be surprised, amazed or shocked by the contents of the article. | '''KoolKat's Korollary''' states: If a headline contains a word like surprising, amazing or shocking - you won't be surprised, amazed or shocked by the contents of the article. | ||
Revision as of 07:29, 17 January 2015
| Someone is wrong on |
| Log in: |
Clickbait refers to any sort of underhanded, style over substance tactic used by webpages to garner more page visits, often on social media websites. This can be accomplished a number of different ways, from posting emotionally pleasing but intellectually vacuous material, presenting an incomplete news article or video with a possibly deceptive title, using emotional appeals such as "You won't believe what happens when...", presenting sexually suggestive imagery, posting a quiz to find out "Which _______ character are you?" (or other inane online quizzes whose only purpose is to stroke the quiz taker's ego), or using provocative pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, or outright hoaxes. With the power of argumentum ad populum, social media becomes a very effective propagator of such nonsensical ideas.[1]
Quality websites should value engagement with readers instead of empty attention-grabbing, because it is more respectful to readers and increases business value for the brand of a website.[2] In contrast, clickbait makes a lot of quick money in the short term while failing to build up a reputable brand in the long term.
Contents |
Common examples
The term is used in an adjective and derogatory form to describe websites which participate in clickbaitery.
News
These websites ostensibly serve as general news websites with coverage of both political events and entertainment as well. Often, their headlines are politically slanted depending on the sites' target audiences (which are noted in the following list) and misleading. These websites intend to have their content shared en masse on social media sites; this is how politically biased information spreads rapidly on the Internet while more sober, reality-based information is obscured.
Although the conservative Daily Caller and liberal Huffington Post do have more sober, show-don't-pander headlines for its articles, those sites are guilty of using emotional manipulation to attract traffic. Both websites often post galleries of NSFW (though not exactly pornographic) photos of women that are filed under the entertainment sections yet often promoted on the front page. Additionally, Daily Caller has sometimes used explicitly racially charged headlines. One story was once titled "Black males are viciously beating people at random at the University of Illinois" before being retitled to the more neutral "Gang Of Men Is Viciously Beating People At Random At The University Of Illinois".[3]
Other websites that are guilty of using clickbait headlines to pay the bills:
- The Blaze (conservative)
- Buzzfeed (liberal)
- Conservative Tribune[4]
- Daily Mail (tabloid)
- Daily Signal (conservative)[5]
- Drudge Report (conservative)
- Independent Journal Review (ijreview.com) (conservative)
- Newsmax (conservative)
- The Political Insider (conservative)
- Tea Party News Network[6]
- Upworthy (liberal)
- Western Journalism Center[wp] (conservative)
- Young Conservatives[8]
KoolKat's Korollary states: If a headline contains a word like surprising, amazing or shocking - you won't be surprised, amazed or shocked by the contents of the article.
Entertainment
Even in reporting lighter topics like music, TV, sports, etc., readers would like to see ideas conveyed in headlines instead of lured by vague, uncertain headlines. Websites that too often commit the latter include:
Humor
- Clickhole.com - the Onion's parody of a clickbait website.
- Cracked.com
Quackery/woo/conspiracy theories
Science (unfortunately)
Alternate uses
In the Gamergate movement, the word "clickbait" has a somewhat different meaning. A formal definition hasn't yet been supplied, but would seem to be something like "any article, regardless of the headline, that criticizes sexism in gaming or among gamers".[11]
Footnotes
- ↑ Data Mining Reveals How Conspiracy Theories Emerge on Facebook. MIT Technology Review: March 18, 2014.
- ↑ Henshaw, Robb. "Content Promotion vs. Clickbait: How to Avoid Destroying Trust & Traffic." Relevance.com: September 29, 2014.
- ↑ Twitter post on Oct. 17, then the article as of Oct. 18, 2014 via Wayback Machine
- ↑ Example: Officer Wilson Was Caught Doing THIS to a Black Kid Just Before Shooting Mike Brown (ironically, the URL gives away the ending because the path reads in part, "wilson-saves-baby-before-shooting")
- ↑ Dish Just Replaced Fox News With This Channel (Well, why not NAME the channel?)
- ↑ Example: Could This BOMBSHELL News About Bill Clinton Derail the ‘Ready for Hillary’ Campaign? Well, why not just tell us what it is? And following Betteridge's law, the answer might as well be...no, becuase TPNN and other right wing blogs are jumping to wild conclusions based on this Smoking Gun article "Billionaire Sex Offender's Phone Book Contained E-Mail Addresses, 21 Phone Numbers For Bill Clinton" that merely says, "According to court records, Clinton “frequently flew” with Epstein aboard the investor’s private jet from 2002 to 2005, the year news of the police investigation of Epstein was first reported...lawyers for the women floated the possibility of subpoenaing Clinton since he “might well be a source of relevant information” about Epstein’s activities." Also, Clinton has disassociated with Epstein since Epstein's conviction.
- ↑ Google search, "you won't believe" site:WesternJournalism.com
- ↑ Internet Archive capture from Jan. 16, 2015 - a LOT of examples there.
- ↑ Example title: "Here's the Ridiculous Amount of Money "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" Actually Made." Better title would've told the reader the fact, instead of lured the reader into clicking.
- ↑ While most headlines on that site are fairly straightforward, some headlines are more vague but may be intended as snark. For example, "Carson Palmer Leaves Game With Knee Injury" vs. "Stay There, Brock Osweiler; Peyton's Got This" or "Kirk Cameron Did What Now?"
- ↑ https://archive.today/T3ykb Gamergate wiki defining clickbait as "an article being only tangentially related to video games and the piece being used to push a political agenda."