Blom, Jonas Nygaard and Kenneth Reinecke Hansen. “Click Bait: Forward-Reference As Lure In Online News Headlines.” Journal of Pragmatics 76. (2015): 87-100. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12. Oct. 2015.
For this academic article, Jonas Blom and Kenneth Hansen studied the tactics that people who write clickbait use to lure people into reading articles. They focused on three particular tactics: empty pronouns, cataphor, and discourse deixis. These three tactics can be summed up into one descriptor: forward-reference. All of these tactics are used in the headlines of certain articles to try and get people to read the article in its entirety. Blom and Hansen studied three headlines, one that dealt with a college paper that got an A-minus despite being awful, one that forward-referenced some of Kim Jong-Un’s preferences, and one that dealt with the “Wondtacular” actions of a young boy. They found that the third headline got the most pageviews because it used the three tactics of forward-referencing most effectively. Blom and Hansen concluded that these sorts of headlines are successful because people want to feel curious, and these headlines actively engage the readers in a guessing game.
Hlinko, John. Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread. New York: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
This book written by John Hlinko discusses how to get a message that you want spread to be spread as effectively as possible. Hlinko talks extensively about using the audience to your advantage. If you create enough curiosity within the readers, it makes it much easier to spread an article or a message because the readers are wont to do that for you. Hlinko talks about making your message fun, entertaining, and easy to digest, all of which are generally characteristics of clickbait. Hlinko says that there is a reason that clickbait is successful, and if one were to follow the format that clickbait journalism follows, then the message that is being spread would be spread very efficiently. Hlinko presents a formula for creating content that will be popular and spread.
Hoon, Shim. “Narrative Journalism In The Contemporary Newsroom.” Narrative Inquiry 24.1 (2014): 77-95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
This study, by Shim Hoon, explores the emergence of narrative, or long-form, journalism and the attitudes towards it. It looks at the storytelling format that long form journalism might take, and how this form of journalism is relatively new and still not as prevalent as other existing forms of journalism. Hoon says that narrative journalism is the product of a contemporary society and literary movement. The change in the perception of narrative journalism or long form journalism is reflective of a change in the ideology in the market of journalism, and that this change is a reactionary one to the prevalence of online media. In this day and age, people want to be able to receive their news in a way that is fun, such as a story. Hoon found that more people tend to enjoy the storytelling format because of its familiarity and ease.
Ahn, Hyerim, and Ji-Hong Park. “The Structural Effects Of Sharing Function On Twiter Networks: Focusing On The Retweet Function.” Journal Of Information Science 41.3 (2015): 354-365. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12. Oct. 2015.
This article by Ahn and Park focuses on the retweet function that is used on Twitter. Ahn and Park found that this function is affected by two things: the making-relationship function and the sharing function. They studied weak links between these two functions and strong links between these two functions and found that weak links formed during the sharing function play a more important role in maintaining the rage of information distribution. Additionally, the retweet function provides more structural advantage in acquiring and controlling information than the strong links did during the making-relationship function. Ahn and Park's theory can be applied to the idea of clickbait because the weak link between the making-relationship function and the sharing function results in more control in the spread of information, which is beneficial to those that are invested in the spread of clickbait.
For this academic article, Jonas Blom and Kenneth Hansen studied the tactics that people who write clickbait use to lure people into reading articles. They focused on three particular tactics: empty pronouns, cataphor, and discourse deixis. These three tactics can be summed up into one descriptor: forward-reference. All of these tactics are used in the headlines of certain articles to try and get people to read the article in its entirety. Blom and Hansen studied three headlines, one that dealt with a college paper that got an A-minus despite being awful, one that forward-referenced some of Kim Jong-Un’s preferences, and one that dealt with the “Wondtacular” actions of a young boy. They found that the third headline got the most pageviews because it used the three tactics of forward-referencing most effectively. Blom and Hansen concluded that these sorts of headlines are successful because people want to feel curious, and these headlines actively engage the readers in a guessing game.
Hlinko, John. Share, Retweet, Repeat: Get Your Message Read and Spread. New York: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
This book written by John Hlinko discusses how to get a message that you want spread to be spread as effectively as possible. Hlinko talks extensively about using the audience to your advantage. If you create enough curiosity within the readers, it makes it much easier to spread an article or a message because the readers are wont to do that for you. Hlinko talks about making your message fun, entertaining, and easy to digest, all of which are generally characteristics of clickbait. Hlinko says that there is a reason that clickbait is successful, and if one were to follow the format that clickbait journalism follows, then the message that is being spread would be spread very efficiently. Hlinko presents a formula for creating content that will be popular and spread.
Hoon, Shim. “Narrative Journalism In The Contemporary Newsroom.” Narrative Inquiry 24.1 (2014): 77-95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
This study, by Shim Hoon, explores the emergence of narrative, or long-form, journalism and the attitudes towards it. It looks at the storytelling format that long form journalism might take, and how this form of journalism is relatively new and still not as prevalent as other existing forms of journalism. Hoon says that narrative journalism is the product of a contemporary society and literary movement. The change in the perception of narrative journalism or long form journalism is reflective of a change in the ideology in the market of journalism, and that this change is a reactionary one to the prevalence of online media. In this day and age, people want to be able to receive their news in a way that is fun, such as a story. Hoon found that more people tend to enjoy the storytelling format because of its familiarity and ease.
Ahn, Hyerim, and Ji-Hong Park. “The Structural Effects Of Sharing Function On Twiter Networks: Focusing On The Retweet Function.” Journal Of Information Science 41.3 (2015): 354-365. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12. Oct. 2015.
This article by Ahn and Park focuses on the retweet function that is used on Twitter. Ahn and Park found that this function is affected by two things: the making-relationship function and the sharing function. They studied weak links between these two functions and strong links between these two functions and found that weak links formed during the sharing function play a more important role in maintaining the rage of information distribution. Additionally, the retweet function provides more structural advantage in acquiring and controlling information than the strong links did during the making-relationship function. Ahn and Park's theory can be applied to the idea of clickbait because the weak link between the making-relationship function and the sharing function results in more control in the spread of information, which is beneficial to those that are invested in the spread of clickbait.