Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Elia Pekica Pagon
In the hyperinformatized times in which we live it is hard to say for some information that it is not an old story or a story already told. In the sea of these “old news” and “told stories” the media are forced to find new ways to reach their targeted audience. In this fight for viewers, listeners and readers, everybody thinks they know what’s best and are trying to do something in their own, new, better way to conquer the competition or at least be in front of someone else.
The battlefield of journalism used to be abundant with quality content whose purpose was to win over the audience. But today, as we know, the situation is completely different. High quality content has come under strong pressure from digitization of all media content. Because, today, nothing matters more than clicks. It no longer matters what’s it about, or how it is discussed, or the system of values to which some news belongs – the only thing that is important is to earn that one click more, so that the publisher could attract more advertisers with the clicks on their content, just to be able to survive on the market.
In this fight for the clicks, audience is lately under the onslaught of clickbait headlines: This will convince even the biggest sceptics; The craziest thing someone did for love; This will shock you; You won’t believe your eyes; The secret that the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want you to know; Lottery doesn’t want you to know this; Picture that XY doesn’t want you to see; You won’t believe what this man is ready to do to get his love back; She cheated on her husband, this is the revenge that waited for her at home; 10 ways how …; The answer to all questions is here; Here’s what happened when…; Never talk about this; Click on your own risk; After learning this, nothing will ever be the same; Is this the most bizarre selfie ever; Image that broke the Internet; The status that is spreading online at lightning speed; Can you solve the riddle that lit the Internet; Solve this quiz and find out how long you will live; See what we actually eat; The most scary scene ever seen; You must know this; This knowledge could save you; You’ll be afraid to click this… and so on. Sometimes the clickbait headlines are really bizarre and sound like cheap prophecies from a fun fair or a circus tent at the outskirts of the city, made by a seer or a fortune teller for a couple of coins.
And people will be people – despite being aware that these are media baits to reel in more clicks, they still yield and click on these headlines, only to be disappointed by the content behind it. We got what we were looking for. The cheap and false prophecy. Every day we help the media earn money with our clicks on their content. Generating clicks has become more important than any high-quality media content, just because the clicks guarantee publishers they will get the money from the advertisers. It’s simply the way things are now. The media are trying to survive, sacrificing on the way the real, quality media content and offering instead Facebook statuses and posts of self-proclaimed stars or shady tycoons, almost always riddled with spelling mistakes and ill-fated indiscreet photographs, because these bizarreries bring them the life preserving clicks. They play the trump card of human curiosity and wretchedness. The real question is – what does this say about the people who fall into that trap every day?
We can rightfully be concerned about the disappearance of true, quality journalism. The Clickbait form is rapidly working to kill the journalism as we know it, exposing on the way the dark corners of the human mind. With each our new opening of content that is not content, which stands as the biggest fluke behind almost every clickbait title, the media that put the bait in the water loses on its rating, and we feel like game that fell into the trap. The internet is full of clickbait traps. Clicks are the only thing that the media are interested in, because that’s how they win advertisers’ business. There are no boundaries. There is no good taste. There is no value system. It’s all guns blazing. His majesty the Click is the only thing that media live for. All for the click and the click for nothing.
But does it really have to be so? Why did we allow our keyboards and screens to become traps for our fingers, which are an extension of our naturally curious mind? Do we want to participate in this game where we stand to gain absolutely nothing? What owners of the media who so enthusiastically accepted the clickbait form are not aware is that no one wins in this dark clickbait game. We are all losers.
These are fake prophets and fake prophecies. It’s a real media circus on the outskirts of the virtual universe. It’s a colorful virtual tent, where only money is counted, and nothing more.
