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=                             Clickbait                              =
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                            Introduction
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Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or a
thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice
users to follow ("click") that link and view, read, stream or listen
to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive,
sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. A "teaser" aims to exploit
the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers
of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity
without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines
often add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not
accurately reflect the content being delivered.
The '-bait' suffix makes an analogy with fishing, where a hook is
disguised by an enticement (bait), presenting the impression to the
fish that it is a desirable thing to swallow.

Before the Internet, a marketing practice known as bait-and-switch
used similar dishonest methods to hook customers. To an extreme
degree, like bait-and-switch, clickbait is a form of fraud. ('Click
fraud', however, is a separate form of online misrepresentation which
uses a more extreme disconnect between what is presented on the front
side of the link and what is on the click-through side of the link,
also encompassing malicious code.) The term 'clickbait' does not
encompass all cases where the user arrives at a destination that is
not anticipated from the link that is clicked.


                             Definition
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A defining characteristic of clickbait is misrepresentation in the
enticement presented to the user to manipulate them to click onto a
link. While there is no universally agreed-upon definition of
clickbait, Merriam-Webster defines clickbait as "something designed to
make readers want to click on a hyperlink, especially when the link
leads to content of dubious value or interest." Dictionary.com states
that clickbait is "a sensationalized headline or piece of text on the
Internet designed to entice people to follow a link to an article on
another web page."

In 2014, Buzzfeed's editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, stated that his
publication avoided using clickbait, using a strict definition of
clickbait as a headline that is dishonest about the content of the
article. Smith noted that Buzzfeed headlines such as "A 5-Year-Old
Girl Raised Enough Money To Take Her Father Who Has Terminal Cancer To
Disney World" delivered exactly what the headline promised. The fact
that the headline was written to be eye-catching was irrelevant in
Smith's view, since the headline accurately described the article.

Facebook, while trying to reduce the amount of clickbait shown to
users, defined the term as a headline that encourages users to click,
but does not tell them what they will see; however, this definition
excludes much content that is generally regarded as clickbait.

A more commonly used definition is a headline that intentionally
overpromises and underdelivers. The articles associated with such
headlines often are unoriginal, and either merely restate the
headline, or copy content from a more genuine news source.

The term clickbait is sometimes used for any article that is
unflattering to a person; in such cases, the article is not actually
clickbait by any legitimate definition of the term.


                             Background
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From a historical perspective, the techniques employed by clickbait
authors can be considered derivative of yellow journalism, which
presented little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead
used eye-catching headlines that included exaggerations of news
events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. One cause of such
sensational stories is the controversial practice called checkbook
journalism, where news reporters pay sources for their information
without verifying its truth. In the U.S. it is generally considered an
unethical practice, as it often turns celebrities and politicians into
lucrative targets of unproven allegations. According to the
'Washington Post' writer Howard Kurtz, "this thriving tabloid culture
has erased the old definitions of news by including tawdry and
sensational stories about celebrities for the sake of profit."


                                Use
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Clickbait is primarily used to drive page views on websites, whether
for their own purposes or to increase online advertising revenue. It
can also be used for phishing attacks for the purpose of spreading
malicious files or stealing user information; the attack occurs once
the user opens the link provided to learn more. Clickbait has been
used for political ends and blamed for the rise of post-truth
politics. Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief at 'The Guardian', wrote
that "chasing down cheap clicks at the expense of accuracy and
veracity" undermined the value of journalism and truth. Emotional
subjects with stark headlines are widely shared and clicked, which
resulted in what 'Slate' described as an "aggregation of outrage" and
a proliferation of websites across the political spectrum -- including
'Breitbart News', 'Huffington Post', 'Salon', 'Townhall' and the
Gawker Media blogs -- which profited by producing shareable short-form
pieces offering simple moral judgements on political and cultural
issues.

Click-through rates (CTRs) on YouTube show that videos with a
hyperbolic or misleading title, created for the purpose of being
attention-grabbing, displayed higher click-through rates than videos
which did not. Clickbait tactics generally lead to higher clickthrough
rates, and to higher revenue and optimization of a content creator's
overall engagement. Engagement bait is manipulative content that is
designed to elicit users into interaction. Used in social media
marketing, the artificial interactions, typically in the form of
comments, likes, shares, or tags, are used subsequently monetized and
used to popularize products and narratives.

There are various clickbait strategies, including the composition of
headlines of news and online articles that build suspense and
sensation, luring and teasing users to click. Some of the popular
approaches in achieving these include the presentation of link and
images that are interesting to the user, exploiting curiosity related
to greed or prurient interest. It is not uncommon, for instance, for
these contents to include lewd imagery or a "make money quick" scheme.

Clickbait is also used in abundance on streaming platforms that thrive
with targeted ads and personalization. At the International Consumer
Electronics Show, YouTube revealed that most of the videos watched and
watchtime generated did not come from Google searches, but from
personalized advertisements and the recommendations page.
Recommendations on YouTube are driven by a viewer's personal watch
history and videos that get an abundance of clicks. On a streaming
platform like YouTube, which has upwards of 122 million active users a
day, the videos that are watched are very likely to be those with
clickbait in either the title or thumbnail of the video, garnering
attention and therefore clicks.


                              Backlash
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By 2014, the ubiquity of clickbait on the web had begun to lead to a
backlash against its use. The satirical newspaper 'The Onion' launched
a new website, ClickHole, that parodied clickbait websites such as
Upworthy and BuzzFeed, and, in August of that same year, Facebook
announced that it was taking technical measures to reduce the impact
of clickbait on its social network, using, among other cues, the time
spent by the user on visiting the linked page as a way of
distinguishing clickbait from other types of content. Ad blockers and
a general fall in advertising clicks also affected the clickbait
model, as websites moved toward sponsored advertising and native
advertising whose content was more important than its click-rate.

Web browsers have incorporated tools to detect and mitigate the
clickbait problem, while social media platforms such as Twitter and
Facebook have implemented algorithms to filter clickbait contents.
Social media groups, such as Stop Clickbait, combat clickbait by
giving a short summary of the clickbait article, closing the
"curiosity gap". Clickbait-reporting browser plug-ins have also been
developed by the research community in order to report clickbait links
for further advances in the field based on supervised learning
algorithms. Security software providers offer advice on how to avoid
harmful clickbait.


                           External links
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*  -
[https://pennstate.pure.elsevier.com:443/en/publications/all-the-news-thats-fit-to-click-the-economics-of-clickbait-media
Profile page]


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