Open AccessThe Emotional Appeal of Clickbait Headlines – between Entertainment and Deception
Author(s) -
Antonia Cristiana ENACHE,
Marina Luminiţa MILITARU,
Diana Eugenia PANAIT-IONCICĂ
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
dialogos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2734-5424
pISSN - 1582-165X
DOI - 10.24818/dlg/2022/sp/14
Subject(s) - deception , appeal , tragedy (event) , entertainment , appeal to emotion , feeling , journalism , content (measure theory) , aesthetics , psychology , media studies , sociology , social psychology , law , political science , art , social science , mathematical analysis , mathematics
The present research attempts to shed light on a specific media genre, namely clickbaitheadlined articles. While they are generally considered a classic example of unethicaljournalism, in that they tend to lure readers via sensationalized titles followed by articleswhose content underdelivers on the initial promise, they are not always deceptive. They aimto entertain and overtly seek an emotional response from the audience; moreover, evenwhen they do not lie and do not resort to illegal techniques, there still exists an unethicalside to them, in that the readers almost always end up disappointed and feeling that thecontent of the article has not offered what the title entitled them to expect. To prove ourhypothesis, we have selected three clickbait-headlined articles: one targeting the readers’pursuit of their economic wellbeing, one involving human tragedy, and one that can bedescribed as “lifestyle advice”, highlighting the similarities between them and how,although they appear to be different on the surface, they all leave their audiencesdisillusioned and sensing they have been misled.