Lately a lot of people are getting fed up with click-baity media content and I have to agree. Exaggerated headlines, twisting of words and biased writing are sure to get more page views, but are they actually beneficial to the public?
I feel somewhat hypocritical publishing an article against clickbait on a platform known for clickbait. I'm guilty of it myself. I get it. You’re tired of seeing “writing” that is just a list with gifs. Even a writer for The Pitt News recently called out Odyssey for being a “wannabe ‘News’ site.” While I would argue that Odyssey never set out to be an actual news source, I do recognize the extreme importance of informative journalism and the way it is presented.
It’s virtually impossible to go on news websites these days without seeing stories that do not live up to the “drama” suggested in the headline. We also can’t ignore that every time there is a national sports championship, the biggest headline on each site is about the outcome. You’re telling me that the Super Bowl is the most important thing going on in the country right now? Really? *insert eye roll.
Let me be clear though, what’s sad is not the fact that top journalists write like this. I’m sure they don’t agree with these media shifts either. What is sad is the underlying societal issues that basically say “include drama or else I don’t care.” The era of reality television means that writers are pretty much forced to write snazzy pieces. Even if there is no financial incentive to get a certain number of page views or likes, it’s completely understandable that a writer will want their work to be seen by the most amount of people. If you’re disgusted about clickbait, don’t blame the writers; blame the millions of young people who don’t care about news unless it’s a cool shared story on facebook.
At least some people still get information, I can’t tell you the number of people who boast the most uneducated political opinions without actually paying attention to credible sources (not-so-friendly reminder that vaccines DO NOT cause autism). I don’t know how to reverse these trends, but I do know that people need to start caring about what is happening in our world.
This isn’t a new problem, either. Recently in my class on the Holocaust, we examined how 1930s US Newspapers covered early Nazi actions against the Jews. Every student was asked to find an original article about the May 10, 1933 book burnings in Germany. When sharing our findings with the class, almost no one could say that their article was on the front page. Further, most pieces were more of a blurb than an article, filling up space no larger than a deck of cards.
American diplomats and foreign correspondents knew exactly what was going on in Nazi Germany. Like most Americans today, the news agencies knew that people didn’t give two shits about what was happening in the rest of the world (we apparently think we’re the only country that matters). So prestigious newspapers like the New York Times and The Chicago Tribune turned stories on the worst genocide in history into tiny afterthoughts buried in the middle of the issue.
I don’t know how to reverse these trends, but I do know that people need to start caring about what is happening in our world. The way journalism is presented is everything. Would less people make a fuss about Hillary Clinton taking one sick day if Fox News hadn’t written about all those health conspiracies? Would things have ended differently for European Jews if more people in the Allied countries were aware? I don’t know, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind.
