Clickbait

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Fictional examples of "chumbox" style adverts, employing common clickbait tactics of using an information gap to encourage reader curiosity, and promising easy-to-read numbered lists Example clickbait adverts.jpg
Fictional examples of "chumbox" style adverts, employing common clickbait tactics of using an information gap to encourage reader curiosity, and promising easy-to-read numbered lists

Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) [2] is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. [3] [4] [5] A "teaser" aims to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines often add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not accurately reflect the content being delivered. [6] [7] [8] The "-bait" suffix makes an analogy with fishing, where a hook is disguised by an enticement (bait), presenting the impression to the fish that it is a desirable thing to swallow. [9]

Contents

Before the Internet, a marketing practice known as bait-and-switch used similar dishonest methods to hook customers. In extreme degree, like bait-and-switch, clickbait is a form of fraud. ( Click fraud , however, is a separate form of online misrepresentation which uses a more extreme disconnect between what is being presented in the frontside of the link versus what is on the click-through side of the link, also encompassing malicious code.) The term clickbait does not encompass all cases where the user arrives at a destination that is not anticipated from the link that is clicked.

Definition

A defining characteristic of clickbait is misrepresentation in the enticement presented to the user to manipulate them to click onto a link. While there is no universally agreed-upon definition of clickbait, Merriam-Webster defines clickbait as "something designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink, especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest." [10] Dictionary.com states that clickbait is "a sensationalized headline or piece of text on the Internet designed to entice people to follow a link to an article on another web page." [11]

In 2014, BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith stated that his publication avoided using clickbait, using a strict definition of clickbait as a headline that is dishonest about the content of the article. Smith noted that Buzzfeed headlines such as "A 5-Year-Old Girl Raised Enough Money To Take Her Father Who Has Terminal Cancer To Disney World" delivered exactly what the headline promised. The fact that the headline was written to be eye-catching was irrelevant in Smith's view, since the headline accurately described the article. [12]

Facebook, while trying to reduce the amount of clickbait shown to users, defined the term as a headline that encourages users to click, but does not tell them what they will see. However, this definition excludes a lot of content that is generally regarded as clickbait. [4]

A more commonly used definition is a headline that intentionally over-promises and under-delivers. [13] The articles associated with such headlines often are unoriginal, and either merely restate the headline, or copies content from a more genuine news source.

The term clickbait is sometimes used for any article that is unflattering to a person. In such cases, the article is not actually clickbait by any legitimate definition of the term. [14]

Background

From a historical perspective, the techniques employed by clickbait authors can be considered derivative of yellow journalism, which presented little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead used eye-catching headlines that included exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. [15] [16] One cause of such sensational stories is the controversial practice called checkbook journalism, where news reporters pay sources for their information without verifying its truth. In the U.S. it is generally considered an unethical practice, as it often turns celebrities and politicians into lucrative targets of unproven allegations. [17] According to Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, "this thriving tabloid culture has erased the old definitions of news by including tawdry and sensational stories about celebrities for the sake of profit." [17]

Use

Artistic representation of "clickbait", Bondi Junction, Australia Clickbait-art-Bondi-Junction.jpg
Artistic representation of "clickbait", Bondi Junction, Australia

Clickbait is primarily used to drive page views on websites, [18] whether for their own purposes or to increase online advertising revenue. [19] It can also be used for phishing attacks for the purpose of spreading malicious files or stealing user information. [20] The attack occurs once the user opens the link provided to learn more. Clickbait has also been used for political ends and has been blamed for the rise of post-truth politics. Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief at The Guardian wrote that "chasing down cheap clicks at the expense of accuracy and veracity" undermined the value of journalism and truth. [21] Emotional subjects with stark headlines are widely shared and clicked, which resulted in what Slate described as an "aggregation of outrage" and a proliferation of websites across the political spectrum – including Breitbart News , Huffington Post , Salon , Townhall and the Gawker Media blogs – which profited by producing shareable short-form pieces offering simple moral judgements on political and cultural issues. [22]

Click-through rates (CTRs) on YouTube show that videos with hyperbolic or misleading title, created for the purpose of being attention-grabbing, displayed higher click-through rates than videos which did not. Clickbait tactics generally lead to higher clickthrough rates, and to higher revenue and optimization of a content creator's overall engagement. [23]

There are various clickbait strategies, including the composition of headlines of news and online articles that build suspense and sensation, luring and teasing users to click. [24] Some of the popular approaches in achieving these include the presentation of link and images that are interesting to the user, exploiting curiosity related to greed or prurient interest. [20] It is not uncommon, for instance, for these contents to include lewd image or a "make money quick" scheme. [20]

Clickbait is also used in abundance on streaming platforms that thrive with targeted ads and personalization. At the International Consumer Electronics Show, YouTube revealed that most of the videos watched and watch-time generated did not come from Google searches, but from personalized advertisements and the recommendations page. [25] Recommendations on YouTube are driven by a viewer's personal watch history and videos that get an abundance of clicks. With a streaming platform like YouTube, which has upwards of 30 million active users a day, the videos that are watched are very likely to be those with clickbait in either the title or thumbnail of the video, garnering attention and therefore clicks. [26]

Backlash

By 2014, the ubiquity of clickbait on the web had begun to lead to a backlash against its use. [8] [27] Satirical newspaper The Onion launched a new website, ClickHole, that parodied clickbait websites such as Upworthy and BuzzFeed, [28] and in August 2014, Facebook announced that it was taking technical measures to reduce the impact of clickbait on its social network, [29] [30] [31] using, among other cues, the time spent by the user on visiting the linked page as a way of distinguishing clickbait from other types of content. [32] Ad blockers and a general fall in advertising clicks also affected the clickbait model, as websites moved toward sponsored advertising and native advertising where the content of the article was more important than the click-rate. [22]

Web browsers have incorporated tools to detect and mitigate the clickbait problem while social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have implemented algorithms to filter clickbait contents. [33] Social media groups, such as Stop Clickbait, [34] [35] combat clickbait by giving a short summary of the clickbait article, closing the "curiosity gap". Clickbait-reporting browser plug-ins [36] have also been developed by the research community in order to report clickbait links for further advances in the field based on supervised learning algorithms. Security software providers offer advice on how to avoid harmful clickbait. [37]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media manipulation</span> Techniques in which partisans create an image that favours their interests

Media manipulation refers to orchestrated campaigns in which actors exploit the distinctive features of broadcasting mass communications or digital media platforms to mislead, misinform, or create a narrative that advance their interests and agendas.

Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Advertisements are increasingly being delivered via automated software systems operating across multiple websites, media services and platforms, known as programmatic advertising.

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites, and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. SMO's focal point is on gaining organic links to social media content. In contrast, SEO's core is about reaching the top of the search engine hierarchy. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.

BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, started as a co-founder and investor in BuzzFeed and is now the executive chairman.

Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist who wrote about it in 2009, although the principle is much older. It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not. The adage does not apply to questions that are more open-ended than strict yes–no questions.

A content farm or content mill is a company that employs freelance creators or uses automated tools to generate a large amount of web content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, known as SEO. Their main goal is to generate advertising revenue through attracting page views, as first exposed in the context of social spam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filter bubble</span> Intellectual isolation through internet algorithms

A filter bubble or ideological frame is a state of intellectual isolation that can result from personalized searches, recommendation systems, and algorithmic curation. The search results are based on information about the user, such as their location, past click-behavior, and search history. Consequently, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles, resulting in a limited and customized view of the world. The choices made by these algorithms are only sometimes transparent. Prime examples include Google Personalized Search results and Facebook's personalized news-stream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upworthy</span> American media brand

Upworthy is a media brand that focuses on positive storytelling.

Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, video, article or editorial piece of content. In some cases, it functions like an advertorial. The word native refers to the coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mic (media company)</span> American internet and media company

Mic is an American internet and media company based in New York City that caters to millennials.

Dylan Matthews is an American journalist. He is currently a correspondent for Vox, an online media venture.

ClickHole is a satirical website that parodies clickbait websites such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy. It was launched on June 12, 2014 by The Onion, in conjunction with that publication's decision to stop its print edition and shift its focus exclusively to the internet. According to ClickHole's senior editor, Jermaine Affonso, the website is "The Onion's response to click-bait content" and serves as "a parody of online media". Critics noted that, on a deeper level, ClickHole illustrates the shallow nature of social media content and media sites' desperation to share such content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Plus (website)</span> News and entertainment website

A Plus is a digital media company based in New York City. The company produces original written, social, and video content, with a focus on positive journalism. The company states that it "strive[s] to deliver positive journalism to readers, with the intention of making a meaningful difference in the world by highlighting our common humanity, promoting personal growth, and inspiring social change."

In journalism, a hot take is a "piece of deliberately provocative commentary that is based almost entirely on shallow moralizing" in response to a news story, "usually written on tight deadlines with little research or reporting, and even less thought".

Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, or North Macedonia among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.

Fake news websites target United States audiences by using disinformation to create or inflame controversial topics such as the 2016 election. Most fake news websites target readers by impersonating or pretending to be real news organizations, which can lead to legitimate news organizations further spreading their message. Most notable in the media are the many websites that made completely false claims about political candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as part of a larger campaign to gain viewers and ad revenue or spread disinformation. Additionally, satire websites have received criticism for not properly notifying readers that they are publishing false or satirical content, since many readers have been duped by seemingly legitimate articles.

Taboola, Inc. is a publicly traded advertising and technology company headquartered in New York City. It provides "content recommendation" adverts on its partner websites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupy Democrats</span> American left-wing political Facebook page and website

Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes hyperpartisan content, clickbait, and false information. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chumbox</span> Form of online advertising

A chumbox is a form of online advertising that uses a grid of thumbnails and captions to drive traffic to other sites and webpages. This form of advertising is often associated with low quality clickbait links and articles. The term derives from the fishing practice of "chumming", the use of fish meat as a lure for fish.

In internet slang, rage-baiting is the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, revenue and support. Rage baiting or farming can be used as a tool to increase engagement, attract subscribers, followers, and supporters, which can be financially lucrative. Rage baiting and rage farming manipulates users to respond in kind to offensive, inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments.

References

  1. ↑ Gardiner, Bryan (18 December 2015). "You'll Be Outraged At How Easy It Was To Get You To Click On This Headline". Wired. Archived from the original on 17 June 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Brown, Sunni (2014). The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently. Link bait is content or a feature on a website that is expressly designed to get users' attention so they click through to another website.
  3. ↑ Frampton, Ben (14 September 2015). "Clickbait - the changing face of online journalism". BBC. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2018. Headline writing has long been considered a skill but, in the digital age, a new word has become synonymous with online journalism - clickbait.
    Put simply, it is a headline which tempts the reader to click on the link to the story. But the name is used pejoratively to describe headlines which are sensationalised, turn out to be adverts or are simply misleading.
  4. 1 2 O'Donovan, Caroline. "What is clickbait?". Nieman Foundation for Journalism . Niewman labs. Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2018. Clickbait is in the eye of the beholder, but Facebook defines it as 'when a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see.'
  5. ↑ Zheng, Hai-Tao; Chen, Jin-Yuan; Yao, Xin; Sangaiah, Arun; Jiang, Yong; Zhao, Cong-Zhi (1 May 2018). "Clickbait Convolutional Neural Network". Symmetry. 10 (5): 138. Bibcode:2018Symm...10..138Z. doi: 10.3390/sym10050138 . ISSN   2073-8994.
  6. ↑ Derek Thompson (14 November 2013). "Upworthy: I Thought This Website Was Crazy, but What Happened Next Changed Everything". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Katy Waldman (23 May 2014). "Mind the 'curiosity gap': How can Upworthy be 'noble' and right when its clickbait headlines feel so wrong?". National Post. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  8. 1 2 Emily Shire (14 July 2014). "Saving Us From Ourselves: The Anti-Clickbait Movement". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 18 December 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Where Clickbait Came From, And Why It's Here to Stay". www.naytev.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "Definition of CLICKBAIT". www.merriam-webster.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  11. ↑ "Clickbait Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Smith, Ben (6 November 2014). "Why BuzzFeed Doesn't Do Clickbait". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  13. ↑ "WTF is clickbait?". TechCrunch. 26 September 2016. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  14. ↑ Bowles, Nellie (27 May 2016). "What Silicon Valley's billionaires don't understand about the first amendment | Nellie Bowles". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  15. ↑ Ingram, Mathew (1 April 2014). "The internet didn't invent viral content or clickbait journalism — there's just more of it now, and it happens faster". GigaOM. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  16. ↑ Drell, Cady (29 July 2016). "How Son of Sam Changed America". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  17. 1 2 Kurtz, Howard. "Fees for Sleaze" Archived 5 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine , Washington Post, 27 January 1994
  18. ↑ "WTF is clickbait?". TechCrunch . 26 September 2016. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  19. ↑ Frampton, Ben (14 September 2015). "Is clickbait changing journalism?". BBC News . Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  20. 1 2 3 Bryant, Adam; Lopez, Juan; Mills, Robert (2017). Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security. Reading, UK: Academic Conferences and Publishing Limited. p. 27. ISBN   9781911218258.
  21. ↑ Katherine Viner (12 July 2016). "How technology disrupted the truth". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  22. 1 2 David Auerbach (10 March 2015). "The Death of Outrage". Slate. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  23. ↑ Berger, Jonah (2012). What Makes online Content Viral?. Journal of Marketing Research. pp. 190–205.
  24. ↑ Chen, Lei; Jensen, Christian; Shahabi, Cyrus; Yang, Xiaochun; Lian, Xiang (2017). Web and Big Data: First International Joint Conference, APWeb-WAIM 2017, Beijing, China, July 7–9, 2017, Proceedings, Part 2. Cham: Springer. p. 73. ISBN   9783319635637.
  25. ↑ "YouTube Says 70% of All Watch Time is Driven by Its Own Recommendations". www.tubefilter.com. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  26. ↑ "• YouTube by the Numbers (2021): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts". 3 January 2021. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  27. ↑ Christine Lagorio-Chafkin (27 January 2014). "Clickbait Bites. Downworthy Is Actually Doing Something About It". Inc. Archived from the original on 30 January 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  28. ↑ Oremus, Will (19 June 2014). "Clickhole: The Onion's new site is more than a BuzzFeed parody". Slate.com. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  29. ↑ Lisa Visentin (26 August 2014). "Facebook wages war on click-bait". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  30. ↑ Andrew Leonard (25 August 2014). "Why Mark Zuckerberg's war on click bait proves we are all pawns of social media". Salon. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  31. ↑ Khalid El-Arini and Joyce Tang (25 August 2014). "News Feed FYI: Click-baiting". Facebook Inc. Archived from the original on 25 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  32. ↑ Ravi Somaiya (25 August 2014). "Facebook Takes Steps Against 'Click Bait' Articles". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  33. ↑ Hung, Jason; Yen, Neil; Hui, Lin (2018). Frontier Computing: Theory, Technologies and Applications (FC 2017). Singapore: Springer. p. 133. ISBN   9789811073977.
  34. ↑ KUSA Staff (19 May 2017). "What this CU student is doing about clickbait will surprise you!". Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  35. ↑ "This Article About Stopping Clickbait Isn't Clickbait. We Promise". Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  36. ↑ Darius Bufnea and Diana Șotropa (September 2018). "A Community Driven Approach for Click Bait Reporting". 2018 26th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM). IEEE. pp. 1–6. doi:10.23919/SOFTCOM.2018.8555759. ISBN   978-9-5329-0087-3. S2CID   54438750.
  37. ↑ "Top 10 Internet Safety Rules & What Not to Do Online". usa.kaspersky.com. Archived from the original on 23 November 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
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