Ryan Parent
There is
no doubt that our generation loves to see something go wrong. We want to drama and excitement in all walks
of life including our news. Due to this
eagerness to find something captivating online, more and more fake news
channels are popping up in order to grab our attention and feed us half-baked
stories made up by someone in a matter of 10 minutes.
For those
who are not aware of these practices, clickbait is the act of creating a
headline that leaves much to the imagination but creates a sense of
urgency. For example, Paris Wade and Ben
Goldman of LibertyWritersNews.com have been using clickbait headlines such as
“Cant Trust Obama. Look At The Sick Thing He Just Did To Stab Trump In The
Back.” The article itself was made up almost entirely of opinion and rumor but
the captivating headline would bring in a huge wave of readers as well as
supporters who believe articles like this to be the whole truth.
On the
bright side, marketinginsidergroup.com reports that like most trends, clickbait
will not be around forever. They explain
that Facebook is currently making an effort to regulate clickbait through
surveys and user input to deliver stories that seem like they would be
interesting to you instead of what has been clicked on the most. User input is going to be huge in getting rid
of clickbait. If we want to get
information based off of what we like, we need to make it known that we have
interests beyond what is currently trending. (Link: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/what-you-need-to-know-headlines-clickbaits/)
As for
trolling, trolling is the act of creating a headline in order to get a rise out
of somebody. So even if the viewer is
not interested in the content, they click on the story strictly because they
want to know who would have such an opinion or how the author could possibly
justify such a post. Trolling creates a
world with no trust in journalists or their stories. In fact it is an insult to journalism itself
as it capitalizes on getting viewers instead of educating the public.
It may
seem like these are not huge problems in the long run but that is simply not
true. Social media and its journalistic
influence played an especially huge role in politics in the past couple years
and especially with the last election.
Political bots share propaganda constantly while also influencing
political discourse online to influence voters.
Freedom Of The Net reported that because of this, Internet freedom has
declined for the seventh consecutive year. Dw.com also reported that these bots
now make up for half of all Internet traffic worldwide. (Link: http://www.dw.com/en/report-fake-news-and-trolls-lead-to-fall-in-global-internet-freedom/a-41373282)
The world
of journalism is in an increasingly volatile place at the moment and it will
take strong action to begin returning it to its glory days. Technology makes it increasingly difficult to
control your media intake as well as to tell whether it is true or not. Ironically enough it looks like social media
outlets will be the ones to help fix this epidemic but then, is this really
such a good idea in itself? Only time will tell.