Shocking secret you won’t believe! Emotional arousal in clickbait headlines

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 1136-1150
Author(s):  
Supavich (Fone) Pengnate
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Online News ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Pupillary Dilation ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Unobtrusive Measure ◽  
Tracking Device ◽  
News Headlines

Purpose Clickbait has become a popular strategy for attracting online users by enticing them to follow the link to a particular website to read further. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence of how clickbait headlines affect online users’ emotional and behavioral responses, specifically emotional arousal and intention to read news. In addition, it is an early attempt to examine pupillary dilation response as an indicator of emotional arousal in the online news context. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted primarily to examine the levels of emotional arousal evoked by two treatment groups of online news headlines, news and clickbait, compared to a neutral control group. Emotional arousal was assessed using two approaches – pupillary dilation response recorded by an eye-tracking device and the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) – and the results were compared. The influence of emotional arousal on intention to read news was hypothesized and tested. Findings The level of emotional arousal evoked by the headlines varies. In general, clickbait headlines generate a higher level of emotional arousal than do the neutral headlines but a lower level than the news headlines. The results also indicate that the level of emotional arousal measured by pupillary dilation response and by SAM are somewhat consistent. Emotional arousal appears to be a significant predictor of intention to read news. Originality/value This study is an initial attempt to investigate how clickbait headlines influence online users’ perceptions and responses, which will be of interest to researchers and news media publishers. The current study also provides evidence for adopting pupillary dilation response, an unobtrusive measure of emotional response, as an alternative methodology for future studies that investigate emotional arousal related to textual information in the online news context.

New Indian online rules risk state overreach and abuse

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Online News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Service ◽  
The Government

Significance The new rules follow a stand-off between Twitter and the central government last month over some posts and accounts. The government has used this stand-off as an opportunity not only to tighten rules governing social media, including Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn, but also those for other digital service providers including news publishers and entertainment streaming companies. Impacts Government moves against dominant social media platforms will boost the appeal of smaller platforms with light or no content moderation. Hate speech and harmful disinformation are especially hard to control and curb on smaller platforms. The new rules will have a chilling effect on online public discourse, increasing self-censorship (at the very least). Government action against online news media would undercut fundamental democratic freedoms and the right to dissent. Since US-based companies dominate key segments of the Indian digital market, India’s restrictive rules could mar India-US ties.

Young adults know that their issues are not represented in the news: Israeli young adults and mainstream news media

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Nuriely ◽  
Moti Gigi ◽  
Yuval Gozansky
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Online News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ways socio-economic issues are represented in mainstream news media and how it is consumed, understood and interpreted by Israeli young adults (YAs). It examines how mainstream media uses neo-liberal discourse, and the ways YAs internalize this ethic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome its limitations. Design/methodology/approach This was a mixed methods study. First, it undertook content analysis of the most popular Israeli mainstream news media among YAs: the online news site Ynet and the TV Channel 2 news. Second, the authors undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 Israeli YAs. The analysis is based on an online survey of 600 young Israelis, aged 18–35 years. Findings Most YAs did not perceive mainstream media as enabling a reliable understanding of the issues important to them. The content analysis revealed that self-representation of YAs is rare, and that their issues were explained, and even resolved, by older adults. Furthermore, most of YAs' problems in mainstream news media were presented using a neo-liberal perspective. Finally, from the interviews, the authors learned that YAs did not find information that could help them deal with their most pressing economic and social issue, in the content offered by mainstream media. For most of them, social media overcomes these shortcomings. Originality/value Contrary to research that has explored YAs’ consumerism of new media outlets, this article explores how YAs in Israel are constructed in the media, as well as the way in which YAs understand mainstream and new social media coverage of the issues most important to them. Using media content analysis and interviews, the authors found that Young Adults tend to be ambivalent toward media coverage. They understand the lack of media information: most of them know that they do not learn enough from the media. This acknowledgment accompanies their tendency to internalize the neo-liberal logic and conservative Israeli national culture, in which class and economic redistribution are largely overlooked. Mainstream news media uses neo-liberal discourse, and young adults internalize this logic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome the limitations this discourse offers. They do so by turning to social media, mainly Facebook. Consequently, their behavior maintains the logic of the market, while also developing new social relations, enabled by social media.

What prompts users to click on news headlines? Evidence from unobtrusive data analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Jiang ◽  
Qian Guo ◽  
Shunchang Chen ◽  
Jiaqi Yang
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Online News ◽  
Clickstream Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Text Length ◽  
News Selection ◽  
Log File ◽  
News Headlines

Purpose The headlines of online news are created carefully to influence audience news selection today. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between news headline presentation and users’ clicking behavior. Design/methodology/approach Two types of unobtrusive data were collected and analyzed jointly for this purpose. A two-month server log file containing 39,990,200 clickstream records was obtained from an institutional news site. A clickstream data analysis was conducted at the footprint and movement levels, which extracted 98,016 clicks received by 7,120 headlines ever displayed on the homepage. Meanwhile, the presentation of these headlines was characterized from seven dimensions, i.e. position, format, text length, use of numbers, use of punctuation marks, recency and popularity, based on the layout and content crawled from the homepage. Findings This study identified a series of presentation characteristics that prompted users to click on the headlines, including placing them in the central T-shaped zones, using images, increasing text length properly for greater clarity, using visually distinctive punctuation marks, and providing recency and popularity indicators. Originality/value The findings have valuable implications for news providers in attracting clicks to their headlines. Also, the successful application of nonreactive methods has significant implications for future user studies in both information science and journalism.

To verify or not to verify: using partial least squares to predict effect of online news on panic buying during pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim-Lim Tan ◽  
Joseph Kee-Ming Sia ◽  
Daniel Kuok Ho Tang
Keyword(s):  
Least Squares ◽  
Partial Least Squares ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Least Squares Method ◽  
Online News ◽  
The Body ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Partial Least Squares Method

PurposeCoronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has given rise to different dimensions of uncommon human behavior, and panic buying is one of them. Interestingly, panic buying research has not been given much attention. The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it examines the influences of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) elements (subjective norm, attitude and perceived behavior control (PBC)) on panic buying. Secondly, it investigates online news and the perceived likelihood of being affected (PLA) as antecedents to the TPB constructs. Finally, to examine online news verification as a moderator on the relationship between the TPB constructs and panic buying.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 371 respondents and analyzed using the partial least squares method structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). PLS predict was applied to determine the predictive power of the model further.FindingsThis study found that subjective norms and attitude influence panic buying. The results further revealed that online news has a direct influence on the PLA and attitude. However, PBC has no such effect on panic buying. Surprisingly, online news verification also has no moderating effects on the relationships between the TPB elements and panic buying.Originality/valueThis research helps to understand consumer panic buying behavior, especially during shock events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first that extends the TPB incorporating both online news and PLA as antecedents to panic buying in the same model. Furthermore, the study serves as an initial attempt to investigate online news verification as a moderator between the link of three constructs of TPB and panic buying, contributing to existing literature. Lastly, it advances the body of knowledge on consumer behavior and contributes methodologically by introducing the PLS approach.

Understanding the motivational values for the usage of specific online news media and users’ perception of information credibility

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tunde Simeon Amosun ◽  
Chu Jianxun ◽  
Olayemi Hafeez Rufai ◽  
Muhideen Sayibu ◽  
Riffat Shahani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Online News ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Credibility ◽  
Motivational Values

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the utilitarian value (UV), hedonic value (HV) and social value (SV) that make people use a certain type of online media website and how the usage of specific online media website impact the way people perceive online information credibility (OIC). A research model was also proposed to explain the essence of this study. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted the survey research methodology to empirically test the research model with 873 research participants from the University of Science and Technology of China and Anhui Medical University. Findings Results from structural equation modeling showed that UV and HV have a significant positive impact on the usage of print news media website (PNMW), usage of broadcast news media website (BNMW) and usage of social networking website (SNW). The SV was also found to have a significant positive impact on the usage of SNWs. The result also indicated that the usage of the PNMW and the usage of the BNMW by online users have a significantly positive impact on high rating of OIC. However, the result showed that the usage of SNW does not have a significant positive impact on the high rating of OIC. Originality/value Findings in this study provided substantial contributions toward the advancement of the uses and gratification theoretical framework by unraveling how certain motivational values can influence online media users’ preferences for specific online media websites, as well as showing how specific online media websites affect online users’ perception of OIC.

Country image and destination image of Brazil in relation to information sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeeyeon Jeannie Hahm ◽  
Asli D.A. Tasci
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Online News ◽  
Destination Image ◽  
Country Image ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure country image and destination image of Brazil and identify influential information sources as image agents that help forming these images. Design/methodology/approach An online sample of respondents residing in the USA was surveyed using a structured survey design. County image, destination image and information sources were measured using seven-point Likert scales. Frequencies, descriptives, correlation analyses, t-test and ordinary least squares regression were used to analyze the data. Findings The findings revealed that Brazil’s destination image is stronger than its country image. Brazil’s destination image is rated above the middle rank (4) on the seven-point scale, the strongest attributes being scenic beauty, beaches and water attractions. Its country image, on the other hand, is below the middle rank (4) on the seven-point scale. Correlated with seven of the nine country image items, general knowledge from school is potentially the most influential agent for country image while word-of-mouth, printed or online news media and TV programs are potentially the most influential agent for destination image. Originality/value The image of Brazil has not been a focus of existing empirical research. Also, this study bridges the gap between country image and destination image in relation to information sources.

scholarly journals Learning to Identify Ambiguous and Misleading News Headlines

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Xiaojun Wan
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online News ◽  
Training Method ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
News Headlines ◽  
Different Sources

Accuracy is one of the basic principles of journalism. However, it is increasingly hard to manage due to the diversity of news media. Some editors of online news tend to use catchy headlines which trick readers into clicking. These headlines are either ambiguous or misleading, degrading the reading experience of the audience. Thus, identifying inaccurate news headlines is a task worth studying. Previous work names these headlines ``clickbaits'' and mainly focus on the features extracted from the headlines, which limits the performance since the consistency between headlines and news bodies is underappreciated. In this paper, we clearly redefine the problem and identify ambiguous and misleading headlines separately. We utilize class sequential rules to exploit structure information when detecting ambiguous headlines. For the identification of misleading headlines, we extract features based on the congruence between headlines and bodies. To make use of the large unlabeled data set, we apply a co-training method and gain an increase in performance. The experiment results show the effectiveness of our methods. Then we use our classifiers to detect inaccurate headlines crawled from different sources and conduct a data analysis.

The shifting representation of common people in China’s news media

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
News Media ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Online News ◽  
Common People ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Address Terms

This paper examines the meanings associated with the high-frequency social address term baixing (‘common people’) in China’s contemporary news media, through the analysis of a sizable corpus of data from China’s online news portals, together with the results of qualitative research derived from participation in an online discussion forum. The findings of this project indicate that the term baixing is closely associated with discourses of insignificance, obedience, and powerlessness. This study sets out to make a contribution to current research on Chinese address terms through the use of a corpus-based methodology, by expanding the site of investigation beyond face-to-face encounters to a wider media public, and thereby to provide insights into the discourses of citizen identity in contemporary China.

scholarly journals Reconnecting the space of tourism and citizenship: the case of tourists’ hubris

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Tomassini ◽  
Leanne Schreurs ◽  
Elena Cavagnaro
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Online News ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Responsibility ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The rapid growth of tourism prior to the COVID-19 pandemic prompts the need for critical reflection of tourism’s “local-global” responsibility in the wake of that pandemic. Conceptually driven by the ancient Greek notion of hubris, this study reflects on the perception of tourists as actors disconnected from citizens’ necessities, safety and well-being. In so doing we develop further knowledge on the relationship between the spaces of tourism and citizenship and how this might build a sustainable future-proof tourism. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected daily for two weeks via three Google Alert queries set to mine Italian online news media contents immediately after the Italian Government’s adoption of mobility restrictions due to COVID-19. This study uses a thematic narrative analysis to examine the contents related to tourists during the COVID-19 outbreak. Findings The exploratory findings reveal how tourists are largely presented as taking over the space of local residents and, by breaking the rules set by national and local authorities, as disregarding those residents’ safety and well-being. Hence, they appear disconnected from any sense of belonging to a local or global community, and from a space to which they owe a duty of care. Originality/value By framing tourists as hubristic subjects ontologically belonging to a neoliberal leisure space disentangled from the citizenship space, this study establishes a novel theoretical grounding from which a sustainable future-proof tourism that is rooted in citizenship space can be rethought.

scholarly journals Critical thinking of young citizens towards news headlines in Chile

Comunicar ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (54) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Vernier ◽  
Luis Cárcamo ◽  
Eliana Scheihing
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
News Media ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Online News ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
News Headlines

Strengthening critical thinking abilities of citizens in the face of news published on the web represents a key challenge for education. Young citizens appear to be vulnerable in the face of poor quality news or those containing nonexplicit ideologies. In the field of data science, computational and statistical techniques have been developed to automatically collect and characterize online news media in real time. Nevertheless, there is still not a lot of interdisciplinary research on how to design data exploration platforms supporting an educational process of critical citizenship. This article explores this opportunity through a case study analyzing critical thinking ability of students when facing news dealing with the social mobilization “No+APF”. From data collected through 4 online exercises conducted by 75 secondary school students, 55 university students and 25 communication specialists, we investigate to what extent young citizens are able to classify news headlines and ideological orientation of news media outlets. We also question the influence of the media’s brand name and the subjectivity of each participant in regards to the social mobilization “No+APF”. The results underline the importance of group work, the influence of the brand name and the correlation between criticalthinking abilities and having a defined opinion. Fortalecer el pensamiento crítico de ciudadanos frente a noticias de Internet representa un desafío educativo clave. Los jóvenes ciudadanos parecen vulnerables frente a noticias de mala calidad u orientaciones ideológicas poco explícitas. Desde la ciencia de datos se desarrollan técnicas informáticas y estadísticas para recopilar prensa digital en tiempo real y caracterizarla automáticamente. Sin embargo, existe poca investigación interdisciplinar para diseñar plataformas de exploración de datos al servicio de un proceso educativo de ciudadanía crítica. Este artículo investiga esa oportunidad, mediante un estudio de caso en Chile que analiza la capacidad crítica del alumnado frente a noticias de un hecho social relevante: la movilización social «No+AFP». A partir de cuatro tareas en línea ?realizadas por 75 estudiantes de secundaria, 55 estudiantes universitarios y 25 especialistas en comunicación? preguntamos en qué medida los jóvenes son capaces de calificar titulares de prensa y orientaciones ideológicas de medios de comunicación. Por otra parte, analizamos la influencia de la marca del medio y de la subjetividad que, frente al movimiento social «No+AFP», imprime cada participante al pensamiento crítico. Los resultados obtenidos destacan la relevancia del trabajo en grupo, la influencia de la marca del medio de prensa y la correlación entre tener una opinión definida y la capacidad crítica.

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