Sensational headlines on electronic newspapers: A matter of concern

Teacher Vu Cuong

This is the opinion of lecturer majoring in electronic journalism Vu Cuong, Academy of Journalism and Communication, in an interview with a reporter about the story of "sensational headlines - view-baiting" in online newspapers today.

Having been teaching electronic journalism for a long time, how do you evaluate the trend of “sensational headlines and clickbait” in online newspapers today? Could you please outline the types of sensational headlines and clickbait that newspapers are currently using?

Teacher Vu Cuong:Currently, Vietnam has more than 200 online newspapers and electronic news sites, along with tens of thousands of internal news sites. In recent years, along with the development of technology, as well as the high demand from readers, online newspapers are making strong progress in both quantity and quality.

However, it cannot be denied that currently, Vietnamese online newspapers are experiencing a phenomenon of “sensational headlines, attracting views”. This situation can be attributed to many reasons: because newspapers follow the trend of the market economy, because many editorial offices now use the number of views as a criterion to evaluate and score news and articles, because a large number of readers themselves do not have the skills to select and distinguish such headlines, or because reporters themselves do not really have good ethics in journalism....

Catchy headlines and clickbait are just using “tricks” and “tricks” to make readers click on the headline to read the content inside the news or article. The purpose is to increase the number of views for that news or article.

There are many ways to attract views through the title. For example, using exclamations, creating excessive emotions, not true to the nature of the event, to arouse curiosity, stimulate readers to read the article, or even the title is completely unrelated to the content of the article.

According to a recent study, which examined the criteria for readers to click on news and articles on online newspapers, the order of priority is as follows:

- The title contains an exclamation point.

- Long title

- The title contains adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.

- Short title

- The title has a question or question word.

Thus, according to this study, not only Vietnamese newspaper readers, but also online newspaper readers in general around the world have a tendency to like headlines with adjectives, adverbs, verbs, exclamation points... because they are criteria that stimulate readers to read the content inside the news article. However, the problem lies in knowing how to use those exclamation points, adjectives, adverbs... so as not to be considered "clickbait headlines - clickbait"

What do you think is the purpose of each of these sensational headlines? From a media perspective, what impact (positive or negative) does it have on the audience as well as the person reflected in the article? For example, the headlines: “80-year-old man hugs and molests 15-year-old girl”; “70-year-old man drags girl into bathroom and rapes her”.

Teacher Vu Cuong:The above headlines used verbs and adjectives that created strong emotions to attract readers such as "hug tightly", "molest", "rape", or used numbers that brought out unique and strange psychology such as "80-year-old man", "70-year-old man", "15-year-old girl"...

In theory, these are the tricks of writing headlines, as mentioned above, using exclamation points, adjectives, adverbs, strong verbs to attract readers' attention. But the problem here is that these authors take advantage of issues related to ethics, social and cultural values, to stimulate the readers' very trivial curiosity, not based on the real quality of the information.

There has been no research that has shown the specific effects of these types of headlines on readers. But in my opinion, these types of headlines more or less have negative psychological effects. Emphasizing details, or using adjectives, verbs that evoke images... in heartbreaking cases for the purpose of attracting readers is inhumane. For victims and their families, this is "rubbing salt into their pain". For readers, especially young people, the frequent appearance of such headlines can create psychological callousness, only stimulating trivial tastes, making it difficult to arouse sympathy for victims, and over time can make them lose the spirit to fight against evil and negativity.

Some people say that the current trend of sensational newspaper headlines is based on "keywords". Do you think this is correct?

Teacher Vu Cuong:According to the above analysis, it is true that there is a phenomenon of using “keywords” to write headlines. Google even has a function to “measure” keyword phrases by date, by region and by language. This shows that using keywords to write headlines is a reasonable trend.

But the point here is that reporters and authors need to have a cool head, know how to distinguish, and select appropriate key phrases for their news and articles, and also appropriate from political, cultural, and social perspectives. Avoid offensive phrases that have negative impacts on society and the community.

However, in the fierce competition of mass media, readers sometimes only read the headline (if they find it interesting and curious, they will click on the article to read). Therefore, sometimes, regardless of professional ethics, reporters are forced to come up with “sensational” headlines to attract readers. So, according to you, how can we attract readers without making the headlines “sensational”?

Teacher Vu Cuong:In my opinion, attracting readers is not only about sensational headlines, but also about the quality of information. If they want to compete in the current media environment, online news agencies must constantly update new trends, meeting the needs and tastes of readers. Currently, that means increasing multimedia works (graphics, videos, audio, interactive programs...); increasing interaction with readers through multiple channels (taking advantage of social media)...; improving the quality and speed of information updates...

However, it must be affirmed that the title plays an important role in attracting readers. It is difficult to have a common standard in choosing a title. The way to choose a title depends on the taste of the target audience. For example, if you create a newspaper for teenagers and you choose a title that is too “serious”, or you do not know how to use teen terminology, then I think it will be difficult to attract readers, and that is not considered a good title.

Or up to now, journalists in Vietnam always think that the title needs to be short and concise... but a famous British online newspaper with a large readership, Daily Mail, is tending to write very long titles... Therefore, how to write a good, attractive title, without being "sensational" depends on the creativity of each journalist. It can start with the current, hot factor, can draw out the most special details, exclusive information, or the most important information.... There are many different ways, but in my opinion, no matter what, journalists should still respect the principle of humanity in writing titles in particular and creating journalistic works in general.

Thank you, sir.

According to Infonet