Click Bait: You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21664/2238-8869.2016v5i2.p196-213Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to investigate Click Bait, one of the strategies most commonly used by online news journalists aiming to make their headlines more attractive to readers. The chapter begins by studying Social Networks and the power they give marketers in spreading information. Next, a historical context to Click Bait is presented through its origins as Yellow Journalism, a 19th century journalism trend focused on hyperbolizing news headlines in order to increase sales. Finally, Click Bait is studied as the online application of techniques like Yellow Journalism. This section analyzes semantics and some of the most popular headline construction formulas. Literature on this matter concluded that the use of certain headline construction formulas yields significant increase in click-through rates. These increases could be beneficial to the publishing organization as they increase advertising impressions, but could also be detrimental, as these hyperbolic headlines may make readers feel manipulated.
References
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Narayan R 2013. An auto executive talks up gas. [cited Jul 6 2015]. Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/good-luck-finding-a-more-polite-takedown-of-climate-change-deniers?c=tbs.
Toal K 2013. Bully calls news anchor fat. [cited Jul 6 2015] Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/bully-calls-news-anchor-fat-news-anchor-destroys-him-on-live-tv.
Your Dictionary 2015. Examples of Yellow Journalism. [cited Feb 28 2015]. Available from: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-yellow-journalism.html.
Collins English Dictionary 2015. Yellow journalism. [cited Feb 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/yellow-journalism.
Meyer C 2013 a. Technology – economy – mediality. [cited Mar 3 2015]. Available from: https://medieninitiative.wordpress.com/tag/yellow-kid/.
Bilton R 2014. The many different ways publishers define ‘clickbait’. [cited Feb 25 2015]. Available from: http://digiday.com/publishers/many-many-ways-publishers-define-clickbait/.
Blom J, Hansen K 2015. Click bait: Forward-reference as lure in online news headlines. Journal of Pragmatics, 76: 87-100.
Boyd D, Ellison N 2008. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13: 210-230.
Campbell WJ 2003. Yellow journalism: Puncturing the myths, defining the legacies. Santa Bárbara: Praeger.
Cardoso G, Mendonça S, Lima T, Paisana M, Neves M (2014). A Internet em Portugal – Sociedade em Rede 2014. Lisboa: Publicações OberCom.
Cardoso T, I Alarcão; J Celorico 2010. Revisão de Literatura e Sistematização do Conhecimento. Porto Editora.
Kaplan LR 2008. The international encyclopedia of communication, volume XI. [cited Feb 22 2015]. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/8114924/Yellow_Journalism_of_the_1890s_--_Encyclopedia_Entry
Kerswell J 2013. 6 Reasons you always fall for Click-Bait (and the secret formulas publishers won't want you to see). [cited Mar 2 2015]. Available from: https://messageandmuse.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/6-reasons-you-always-fall-for-click-bait-and-the-secret-formulas-publishers-wont-want-you-to-see/.
Lovett C, Smith K, Foyle H 1998. Remembering the Maine: Teaching about the Spanish-American War Era after 100 years. The Social Studies, 89(3): 123-133.
Marie Claire 2015. Jamie Dornan denies a huge rumor about Fifty Shades of Grey. 2015 [cited Feb 26 2015]. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/MarieClaire/.
Meyer R 2013 b. Why are upworthy headlines suddenly everywhere? [cited Mar 2 2015]. Available from: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/why-are-upworthy-headlines-suddenly-everywhere/282048/.
Strauss S, Feiz P 2014. Discourse analysis. A multi-perspective and multi-lingual approach. London: Routledge.
Writing 2004. Coloring the news, origins yellow journalism. Writing, 27(2): 6.
Smith B 2014. Why buzzfeed doesn’t do Clickbait. [cited Feb 2 2015]. Available from: http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/why-buzzfeed-doesnt-do-clickbait#.gdOe0Re3o.
Kirkpatrick D 2010. The Facebook effect – The inside story of the company that is connecting the World. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Awl D 2011. Facebook me! A guide to socializing, sharing, and promoting on Facebook, 2nd edition. California: Peachpit Press.
Schepp B, Schepp D 2012. How to find a job on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networks, 2nd ed. McGraw Hill Education.
Clark M 2013. We don’t hear enough from native American voices. [cited Jul 6 2015]. Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/we-don-t-hear-enough-from-native-american-voices-here-s-an-inspiring-message-from-one-2.
Bercovici J 2013. These five astonishing headline writing secrets will make you cry, or at least click. [cited 2015 Feb 26]. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/03/01/these-five-astonishing-headline-writing-secrets-will-make-you-cry/.
Corcoran L 2013. The most viral publishers of November 2013. [cited Feb 26, 2015] Available from: http://blog.newswhip.com/index.php/2013/12/top-social-publishers-november-2013.
El-Arini K, Tang J 2014. News feed FYI: Click-baiting. [cited Mar 2 2015]. Available from: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/08/news-feed-fyi-click-baiting/.
Qureshi S 2014. Three things Gandhi can teach you about Marketing. [cited Jun 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sajeel-qureshi/marketing-strategies_b_6303682.html.
Bucelli D, Neto P, Vendrametto O 2014. As Empresas mais Inovadoras: Uma Análise sob a ótica das Teorias Organizacionais. Revista GEINTEC-Gestão, Inovação e Tecnologias, 4(2): 940-954.
Shewan D 2014. You can’t not click: Weighing the pros & cons of Clickbait. [cited Mar 1 2015]. Available from: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/07/15/clickbait.
March E 2015. When Obama asks him about his dad, you can just tell that he knows exactly how he feels. [cited Jun 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/when-obama-asks-him-about-his-dad-you-can-just-tell-that-he-knows-exactly-how-he-feels.
Merriam-Webster 2015. Global Village. [cited Feb 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/global%20village.
Oxford Dictionaries 2015. Clickbait. [cited Feb 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/clickbait.
Mordecai A 2015. This amazing kid died. What he left behind is wondtacular. [cited Jun 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/this-amazing-kid-got-to-enjoy-19-awesome-years-on-this-planet-what-he-left-behind-is-wondtacular.
Narayan R 2013. An auto executive talks up gas. [cited Jul 6 2015]. Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/good-luck-finding-a-more-polite-takedown-of-climate-change-deniers?c=tbs.
Toal K 2013. Bully calls news anchor fat. [cited Jul 6 2015] Available from: http://www.upworthy.com/bully-calls-news-anchor-fat-news-anchor-destroys-him-on-live-tv.
Your Dictionary 2015. Examples of Yellow Journalism. [cited Feb 28 2015]. Available from: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-yellow-journalism.html.
Collins English Dictionary 2015. Yellow journalism. [cited Feb 24 2015]. Available from: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/yellow-journalism.
Meyer C 2013 a. Technology – economy – mediality. [cited Mar 3 2015]. Available from: https://medieninitiative.wordpress.com/tag/yellow-kid/.
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Published
2016-12-12
How to Cite
ALVES, Liliana; ANTUNES, Nuno; AGRICI, Olga; SOUSA, Carlos M. R.; RAMOS, Celia M. Q. Click Bait: You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!. Fronteiras - Journal of Social, Technological and Environmental Science, [S. l.], v. 5, n. 2, p. 196–213, 2016. DOI: 10.21664/2238-8869.2016v5i2.p196-213. Disponível em: https://revistas.unievangelica.edu.br/index.php/fronteiras/article/view/1606. Acesso em: 25 dec. 2024.
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