Reminiscing 'Clickbait'

While talking of online journalism and reporting, one of the most popular practices that would be in vogue today, would be that of the term ‘click bait’. In simple terms, this refers to constructing a headline in such a way that it incites people to click on that article and eye through. Further, under this category, ‘How to’ headlines hog a majority of the limelight. ‘How I made $10 billion in a year’, ‘How should you be dealing with a toxic colleague’ are some of the prime examples that would churn out as best suited for this category.

Yet, a lot of times, in my personal life I did encounter many such occasions where the headline was entirely misleading, perhaps while falling under the ambit of clickbait. Just the other day, while scrolling through a news website, my eyes rested on this particular new piece, that talked about the recent Facebook controversy encircling around Public Policy Director for India, South and Central Asia, Ankhi Das. The headline mentioned about her journey with Facebook, since she assumed duties. On opening the same, I discovered that quite contrary to my expectations, where I was expecting a timeline of hers being associated with Facebook, it solely focussed on the recent involvement of Das, and majorly talking of her failure to protect hate speech comments by politicians.

Now, that was misleading.Then, there are these listicles and ‘how to’ articles that are majorly pretty direct and to the point. Some common listicles doing the rounds contemporarily are ‘How to ace a difficult job interview’, ‘Things to keep in mind while negotiating your salary’, and the like. In articles like these, there are slim chances that the reader might get distracted, or get involved in a plethora of doubts around the literal meaning and connotations, unless, of course, it begins on a highly poetic or prosaic note.

Guess, the problem mostly lies in publications trying to scratch through both clickbait and maintaining a Bernard Shaw tonality. Stating facts, and also abiding by literature. The New York Times and Bloomberg can be cited as the best examples of these forms of writing. In one of my previous write ups, and during the time of the brutal killing of George Floyd, I had written about the same, and while referring to other news publications (mostly international), it came to knowledge that the majority of these write ups, that is to say, the soft stories begin with anecdotes. In this case, it began with a Black girl that came to the West for her studies, and had to bear the horrendous brunt of racism, owing to her creed.

These articles would be called click bait, and mostly would be identified as ‘human interest stories’, that play on the psyche of people… In a nutshell, click baits, though may sound cheesy at first, yet come up with a purpose of making and encouraging a reader to read, however, a lot of times ends up in misleading the latter. The practice of which must be avoided.