Clickbait

[[File:Example clickbait adverts.jpg|right|300px|thumb|INSANE EXAMPLES]]{{internet}}{{media}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:This MUST READ page on clickbait written by a local mom will CHANGE your life with ONE WEIRD TRICK! Doctors HATE HER!!}}
The term "'''clickbait'''" refers to any sort of underhanded, [[style over substance | style-over-substance]] tactic used on [[Internet | webpages]] to garner more page visits, often from [[social media | social-media]] websites. Clickbait tries to operate in 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 appeal]]s such as "You won't believe what happens when...", presenting [[sex]]ually suggestive imagery,<ref group=note>Such material could be called [[Masturbation|master bait]]</ref><ref group=note>Which sites like BuzzFeed often quite hypocritically do to attract thirsty male teens while preaching feminism elsewhere</ref> posting a quiz to find out "Which _______ character are you?" (or other inane online quizzes whose only ostensible purpose is to stroke the quiz-taker's ego), or using provocative [[pseudoscience]], [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], {{wpl|tall tale|tall tales|,}} or outright [[hoax]]es. With the power of ''[[argumentum ad populum]]'', social media becomes a very effective propagator of such nonsensical ideas.<ref>[http://www.technologyreview.com/view/525616/data-mining-reveals-how-conspiracy-theories-emerge-on-facebook/ Data Mining Reveals How Conspiracy Theories Emerge on Facebook]. ''MIT Technology Review'': March 18, 2014.</ref> In addition, clickbait sites often re-hash trendy videos whose fame was over ''years'' ago.<ref>
[http://holesinthefoam.us/my-top-six-reasons-for-going-all-out-against-clickbait-ridiculous-list-articles-and-other-viral-dreck-and-4-will-pucker-your-sphincter/ My Top Six Reasons for Going All-Out Against Clickbait, Ridiculous List Articles and Other Viral DRECK – And #4 Will Pucker Your Sphincter!]. Holes in the Foam. June 26, 2014.
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==Four things ''THEY'' don't want you to know about binge-clicking!!!==
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.<ref>Henshaw, Robb. "[http://relevance.com/content-promotion-vs-clickbait-how-to-avoid-destroying-trust-traffic/ Content Promotion vs. Clickbait: How to Avoid Destroying Trust & Traffic]." ''Relevance.com'': September 29, 2014.</ref> 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. If a headline contains a word like "surprising", "amazing", or "shocking" &mdash; [[Betteridge's law of headlines|you won't be surprised, amazed, or shocked by the contents of the article.]]

A particularly notorious example is that of {{wpl|Valnet||,}} a [[Canada|Canadian]] content farming network whose properties they acquired were historically acclaimed and trusted sources for scenes such as technology and popular culture but eventually degenerated into listicle after listicle of vapid junk, such as the front page news section of XDA-Developers, a site focusing on modifications for smart devices{{efn|The forum remains largely spared from the clickbait slop though, thank Goat. There's still a mother lode of valuable information and tech about flashing custom ROMs and such if you're not comfortable with visiting random [[Telegram]] or IRC channels dedicated to the subject; just ignore the Valnet slop on their front page and you should be fine.}} and most recently {{wpl|Polygon (website)#Valnet (2025–present)|Polygon|,}} whose acquisition by Valnet spawned outrage and concerns that its journalistic quality will be compromised.

==Astonishing COMMON EXAMPLES of Clickbait that can't be unseen==
{{main|Fake news}}
Clickbait websites ostensibly serve as general news websites with coverage of both political events and entertainment as well, albeit modeled after [[tabloid]]s (and even putting established tabloids like ''[[Daily Mail]]'' and ''[[National Enquirer]]'' to shame in the art of attracting [[sucker]]s). Often, their headlines are misleading and politically slanted depending on the sites' target audiences. These websites intend to have their content shared en masse on social media sites.

===One thing you never knew about clickbait===
Most websites that generate clickbait were founded during the Web 2.0 era (c. 2005-), with the rise of [[social media]] and user-generated content that increased incentive to create compelling-yet-shallow material for web consumption. However, the right-wing ''[[Drudge Report]]'' news aggregator, founded in 1998, was clickbait before clickbait was even a word. In 2005, the ''[[Huffington Post]]'' was launched as a left-wing competitor to Drudge. (In fact, [[Andrew Breitbart]] got his start working for both sites before founding his own, eponymous news/commentary website. While Breitbart.com has had its share of credibility issues, in all fairness, it does ''not'' rely on clickbait-style headlines/content as much as other sites discussed here.)

===What you need to know now about the NEWS===
Although the conservative ''[[The Daily Caller|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 [[Pornography|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 [[racism|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".<ref>[https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/522977762739777537 Twitter post on Oct. 17], then the [http://web.archive.org/web/20141018062517/http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/17/black-males-are-viciously-beating-people-at-random-at-the-university-of-illinois/ article as of Oct. 18, 2014 via Wayback Machine]</ref>

===Scientists find CURE for cancer, baldness, and ALL THESE DISEASES===
An example of [[yellow journalism]], some news sources which report findings from scientific research may omit key details in order to produce particularly sensational headlines. One example of this is the ongoing trend of news articles omitting the words "in mice" in their headlines,<ref>Crowe, K., [https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/mice-science-research-spin-news-media-1.5194985 "Mice are not people: Fighting spin in medical science"], ''CBC News''.</ref> a result which suggests that the target reader demographic of these articles are literally mice (rather than you, presumably a human). It's worth noting that most articles using such clickbait headlines eventually mention that the research findings are only applicable to mice, somewhere in their body text.

A Twitter account run by an actual scientist, [https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice @justsaysinmice], lightly mocks news articles (that are perhaps mocking their own audiences) by adding "in mice" to the end of clickbait headlines.

==Gamergater comes across a SJW… you'll never ''BELIEVE'' what happens next…==
{{main|Gamergate}}
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 the harassment of women and anyone who finds our methods disgusting among gamers".<ref>[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." This would make an overwhelming number of editorials on all manner of topics "clickbait." Step it up ''Times''.</ref> Or anything published by Gawker, anywhere, at any time.<ref group=note>Although to be fair, [[Stopped clock|Gawker ''is'' complete garbage; that's ''one'' thing Gamergaters and anti-GGers can both agree on.]]</ref> It is presumed that the people writing the "clickbait" articles [[Psychological projection|don't actually care]] about the subjects they're writing about.

== This link shouldn't exist (but it does!) ==
*[[Spam]]
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==These bonus comments will ''blow your mind!''==
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==These citations are unbelievable!==
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[[Category:Media hysteria]]
[[Category:Fake news]]
[[Category:Alternative medicine]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]

Categories: Media hysteria, Fake news, Alternative medicine, Conspiracy theories