The Recent Spate of Lists/Clickbait on "proper" news sites

Generic Dreadhead

You will notice I put proper in inverted commas as no matter what paper/website you read, you'll always find a person who turns their nose up at this and that.

The subject of my examples are the independent. It wasn't 5 years ago that at least the stuff listed there was kind of news, or worth reporting on.

But now there are just oh so many "lists" and "interesting videos"

Six reasons why North Korea became the most miserable place on earth

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/six-reasons-why-north-korea-became-the-most-miserable-place-on-earth-30787841.html

I'd say there's more than 6 reasons... not like there needed to be a list in the 1st place

Meet Coco, the tutu-wearing dancing hedgehog

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/trending/meet-coco-the-tutuwearing-dancing-hedgehog-30787851.html

However cute Coco may/may not be, he's not wearing a Tutu for very long and he's not dancing

This absolute rubbish

http://www.independent.ie/life/family/parenting/51-thoughts-every-mother-has-on-a-rare-night-out-30732693.html

Patronising, maybe sexist, unfunny, unenlightened, does not need to exist

As far as most news sites/papers go, it's definitely getting worse.
I like the whole idea of reporting positive news, but come on Coco, get your flipping act together and put on a show goddamnit

My name is URL

The Indo hasn't been a proper news site for years. It's like a parody of itself these days.

biko

I know mate. Clickbait and those lists pisses me off no end too.
It's lazy journalism trying to be "with it" and "hip".

Concept stolen straight from facebook

Generic Dreadhead

My name is URL wrote: »

The Indo hasn't been a proper news site for years. It's like a parody of itself these days.

Haha, yeah, but that was kind of the point I was making, it's re-posting stuff from some truly awful news outlets.

Also It's ads are the 2nd worst ever....

2nd only to the "Dear 30 year old me" b****x up above

catallus

I blame globalisation and the changes newspapers have had to necessarily make in the way they create content; it is no longer efficient to pay a trained journalist to produce "proper" content, so they go to the article-mills and print that dross instead. Happy shareholders

The Backwards Man

'You'll never believe what this guy wrote in his next post'

Those type of headlines make me mad

Macavity.

Clickbait is fast becoming my least favourite word.

Duggy747

13 Things We Love About Ireland

No. 8 might surprise you!!

whiskeyman

Duggy747 wrote: »

13 Things We Love About Ireland

No. 8 might surprise you!!

Where's the link?
Link damnit!!!

Tombi!

Given how many idiots have access to the internet, it's not surprising.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure everyone read a tabloid at least once but a lot of clickbait titles are designed to get the mass pack of idiots online to click and read.

Someone here was mentioning how at their workplace, nobody seemed interested in the landing of a spacecraft of a comet. Which is fine. Not for everyone. Yet one of their coworkers was interested in some celebrity gossip.

There are still good sites out there. Ironically I've found bloggers and independent reviewers for video games to be surprisingly good compared to big name sites. I imagine it might go for the same thing as newspapers.

Or they just need to keep the clickbait titles done and keep the actual interesting stories in the papers.

RDM_83 again

I actually don't mind the list sort of clickbait, at least its obvious what it is, some of the extreme SJW stuff that pops up in the guardian etc is much more annoying as you can never be quiet sure if the author actually believes it what they are writing.

catallus

Some of that SJW stuff can be very informative!

Grayson

The indo doesn't actually employ reporters or journalists any more does it? The indo has been doing copy journalism and tacky clickbait opinion pieces for years.
To be fair, the external sites they direct to probably researched their stories more.

Grayson

It reminded me of this b.it from the daily show about click bait.

Generic Dreadhead

Grayson wrote: »

The indo doesn't actually employ reporters or journalists any more does it? The indo has been doing copy journalism and tacky clickbait opinion pieces for years.
To be fair, the external sites they direct to probably researched their stories more.

My favourite stories of there's are the ones littered with "The Herald can Report" etc :rolleyes: FFS

padd b1975

The irony of complaining about Clickbait on a site where every thread on it is a form of Clickbait appears to have passed everybody by.

Generic Dreadhead

padd b1975 wrote: »

The irony of complaining about Clickbait on a site where every thread on it is a form of Clickbait appears to have passed everybody by.

So all of Boards threads on all the forums are click bait?

Dravokivich

You know what grinds my gears about those lists? Most of the time, they aren't even lists! It's another page to click into for the next item, or the next small range of items. :mad:

floggg

biko wrote: »

I know mate. Clickbait and those lists pisses me off no end too.
It's lazy journalism trying to be "with it" and "hip".

Concept stolen straight from facebook

No its not. Its solely about generating as revenue.

They don't care whether it's cool or not, just as long as you keep clicking.

Birneybau

padd b1975 wrote: »

The irony of complaining about Clickbait on a site where every thread on it is a form of Clickbait appears to have passed everybody by.

Do you know what clickbait is? You might be surprised!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

padd b1975

Cormac... wrote: »

So all of Boards threads on all the forums are click bait?

Absolutely, every OP hopes to get replies/views on the threads they start.
This would be done by a clever thread title or an interesting first post designed to catch users attention.

padd b1975

Birneybau wrote: »

Do you know what clickbait is? You might be surprised!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

Interesting read, but I feel my point still stands regarding boards.ie.

Generic Dreadhead

padd b1975 wrote: »

Absolutely, every OP hopes to get replies/views on the threads they start.
This would be done by a clever thread title or an interesting first post designed to catch users attention.

A lot of Forums have Threads that are simply updates/news on whats happening with something (Say a video game like Far Cry 4) and others where people exchange information (say asking for advice on compatible PC components when upgrading).... Let's not all tar every thread in every forum/sub-forum with the same brush

Birneybau

padd b1975 wrote: »

Interesting read, but I feel my point still stands regarding boards.ie.

Was a joke

catallus

So we're all, like, journalists?

Generic Dreadhead

catallus wrote: »

So we're all, like, journalists?

Of course, except for Niamh Horan

catallus

Cormac... wrote: »

Of course, except for Niamh Horan

Can I get a press-badge? And wear it?

Generic Dreadhead

catallus wrote: »

Can I get a press-badge? And wear it?

As long as you abuse the "power" it gives you, I don't see why not

padd b1975

catallus wrote: »

So we're all, like, journalists?

I prefer the term "Internet published writer".

padd b1975

Birneybau wrote: »

Was a joke

Christ.....

catallus

Cormac... wrote: »

As long as you abuse the "power" it gives you, I don't see why not

Finally! I can write on the internets about stuff! I'm going to be richer than astronauts, I mean Kanye! Sweet Jesus, I can smell the money and power corrupting me already!

I might need a PA and everything.