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No, the confession won't shock you, our programmers just aren't that bad at least as far as I know. I'll let you know when that changes. Still, the headline is piquing our curiosity and may lead to a most annoying phenomenon.
If you spend a lot of time on the Internet and know your way around social media or news sites you'll have noticed the following style of headline: This man just wanted to go shopping. You won't believe what happened. Well you certainly won't know what happened until you click and it won't be all that hard to believe afterwards. However, what will happen is that you'll be falling for a well thought out scheme, a million dollar business.
While you're reading this, an army of writers and editors is racking their brains about a single sentence. Not any sentence but the one sentence that will make us curious. The procedure mostly stays the same, you try to create a so-called curiosity gap, tell a few bits of a story and leave out the rest. Classic example: You see a child standing by a road - and now comes the tear dropping bit, ideally accompanied by a photo that has this cute girl look into the camera with big, innocent eyes. Now we have curiosity, cuteness and the promise of an emotional ride - perfect.
This method comes in many different variations. Imminent danger is highly effective, too. One click will tell us why our economic system will collapse in exactly 44 days, which environmental disaster will wipe us out or why our hearts will soon stop beating. Cuteness in all possible combinations will melt the hearts of many, the little kitten messing about with her milk, the yawning hedgehog, the faithful dog - always a safe bet. Disgust is more successful than you may think, exotic diseases, gross-out humor or simply people without a lick of manners quickly catch our interest. Sex is equally prevalent, even though it may not be all that surprising when the big breasted blonde is losing her top while water skiing. Does all this sound silly to you? Certainly, but it is effective!
And behind all of this (you guessed it) there's heaps of money to be made. In their efforts to lure more visitors to their massively ad-populated sites, smart people quickly discovered that the means of the gutter press help generate clicks, without much effort at that. You simply collect a couple of video clips, images and stories and cook up that memorable headline. This is called click baiting and has spread through many pages across the web like a plague. It was easy to ignore when it was still an exception but now even big publishers and TV stations have jumped on the bandwagon, often secretly since these articles do seldom deserve to be called news. That is also why big players like to create spin-offs that appear very young and trendy. These were mostly put together without any sense of journalism, optimized for quick sharing, laden with buzzwords and will simply be referenced in their main articles. The surprising thing is that these sites achieve a level of market penetration that surpasses all conventional news pages.
Use your brain!
As long as these articles are clearly recognizable as sensationalism they may be annoying but pose only a minor issue. But this will quickly turn into a real problem once serious journalism gets mixed up with this sort of sensational rubbish. Following the desperate hunt for clicks, shares and reach, more and more "serious" news publishers are joining the game, openly. Credibility and professionalism are the victims of this development. I can hardly think of a time when people had less faith in the the media than today. Many consider the media to be the propaganda outlet of either politics or the industry - and they may be right some of the time. Publishers are undermining their credibility just to make a quick buck. When I come across a pile of rubbish that makes my brain melt, will I trust the rest of the articles that might be well researched and full of useful information?
What chance is there for real news? Would you rather read an enlightening article about the Middle East or enjoy the miraculous rescue of the Dalmatian puppies? Will news broadcasters and publishers follow the path of mindless sensationalism to gain a more favorable position with the marketing industry? There's a scent of imminent stupidity in the air. A scent with a broad reach.
@ bill@wquinlan.freeserve.co.uk
Adblock Plus browser addon is the answer to excessive WWW advertising. Though I don't use it here on Ashampoo website nor some other websites that don't try to shove too much garbage at me.
I'm only a chicken at 82 but I get most of my recreation from the PC. I don't mind the updates for WinX (the school ground way of nominating Windows 10). I realize that Redmond will get everything OK eventually. By the way, here in Australia the term for a "Rollator" is a Zimmer Frame. I don't know who Mr Zimmer was but it has given me the incentive to Google it.
Greed is NOT good, it only serves to make the fortunate a fortune.
While the real unsung heroes go unnoticed and driven to poverty by the unscrupulous, driven outward and downward due to the asset hungry wannabes, controlling the plight of the people that need a fair go.
What is the version?
What version? :)
що можна сказати? по статистиці завдяки інтернету телебачення кожен рік втрає 3 відсотки аудиторії.на рахунок новин: подивіться російські телеканали-ось де дурня у всій красі.турбує уся земна куля:і Асад, жителі вільного Лугандону (пардон,ЛНР як вони себе величають),при цьому повна відсутність актуальних новин про життя у самій Росії.на рахунок грудастих блондинок,якщо вірно переклав мій Гоогл-подивіться що рекламують чоловіки:або проносне,або мазі від радикуліту,ніби у жінок немає подібних проблем.
Clackbait works . . haha
Nice one Sven :)
Irony is my mother tongue. :)
Something else that bugs me along the line of thinking in this article is in Australia the two largest commercial free to air television channels have increased their nightly news bulletins from 30 to 60 minutes and the news is just as inane only there twice as much of non news as before. For instance I cannot understand why they need to devote around 10 minutes to the lead story about how much rain has fallen in the capital city of a given state when we have what is now called a 'rain event'.
Therein is the proof that advertising is created by idiots to please the idiots who watch, enjoy and believe.
I am thankful that our family become very annoyed with the repetitive repeats and the boring lies buried within, and are far from curious, because there is not one single product that performs, or lasts as advertised......even worse is the statement used incessantly, "Everyone will 'want one', or 'use one'."
You can bet that there are millions of people who hate advertising with a passion, and are turned away from the products due the noisy, annoying 'brainbashing'.
On another note, a busty blonde may be LOSING her bikini top not LOOSING it.
Loose may be a loose shoelace or a loose book page.
The blonde may be LOSING the top of her bikini, even losing her dog which wriggled out of it's loose collar.
We seem to be changing to a society where Profit is the chief motive and everybody is being urged to compete with everybody else.
"blonde is loosing her top"? NO. Blonde is "losing" her top.
Fixed! :) Thank you!
Why, OH... WHY ??? ..... does collective humanity, who claim be Intelligent, numbly, habitually PAY for the CRAP from Media that Replicates in goofy Copy-cat minds, killing of Magnificent, innocent Human BEings ? And THEN !!!!!!!!!!!!..... insanely examine to death what motivates the mindless idiots, while announcing the idiotic perpetrator's names all over the Beautiful Planet Earth. STOP IT !!! Never, EVER, announce the names of shooters, or refer to their idiotic 'motives', for God Sakes! ONLY Insanity is the inexplicable motivation, WHICH DESERVES NO PUBLIC ATTENTION, WHATSOEVER !!! Please, PLEASE !!! ..... Beautiful, Intelligent, Caring Individuals and All AWARE HUMANITY, spread THIS MESSAGE !!! There are Magnificent Better Ways for Us All to Enjoy Brilliant Lives !!!!!!!
EVERYONE !!! .... ::: Search and Find Wholesome, Creative Ideas to Share and Drown Out Such Deliberate Inferior human Character homicidal behavior !!! Honor Human Character and Dignity !!!
Marketer's intense appeals to the mindless masses has made the marketers, themselves, the most mindless of all goofy narcissists of all time !!! Collective human Character Value has become a myth !!!
Interesting article.. thank you
True ( as Edward says ) Commercial tv in UK now has approx 15 minutes of each hour taken up with commercials. Commercial greed is rampant. Greed is one of the seven dealy sins ( may sound outdated to use that word ) but it is true. ) The question has to be asked " Can we trust what the commercial says?)
However there is some good news as we approach Christmas and to me that is the REAL meaning of Christmas, Christmas is PERSONAL not Commercial .
Read John chapter 3 verse 16 , "What God wants is spiritual friut not religious nuts" Enjoy the real Christmas my friends wherever you are
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I guess I fell for the click-baiting when I opened this blog posting! What are the confessions, and particularly what is number 4? An effective and equally deceptive ploy.
It was just an unique experiment to use this clickbait method. Oh the irony :)
Last part is the best part.
Journalism, Honest, Credible, Legit Journalism is taking the backseat on the News Bandwagon. Or it may be literally just jumping off. It has taken a nose dive in the public trust system. Picking anything that makes money.
I remember when News was REAL. News was trustworthy. Now I am not able to trust anything I see or read.
I remember when a news castor hired a bunch of people to scream, holler and jump up and down in front of a building to make it seem like a real tragedy. Then they all left afterwards and there was nothing.
Now, apply all this to the Internet.
Nothing is what it seems.
Greed and mankind the bane of the world.
Ads on the WWW have got to the stage where one can't call up a page without a blizzard of pop-up ads appearing. The situation has become ridiculous and one spends too much time batting away these intrusive nuisances. Grrrrr.
Turn your submitted information and learn the truth.
We try every day. :)
How true!
Too True. Since commercial TV came to the UK the advertising slots have grown enormously. It is No wonder that more people are turning to DVDs of films and use their Tv as a cinema screen. Many no longer tune to TV channels. Even the BBC has been forced to introduce "Breaks" although they can only use them to trail their own programmes. Mix Politicians and media owners and you are in for trouble and an endless stream of mis-information and a smoke screen across the media to hide their plotting.
Thanks GOD