Traditional media outlets, like SunStar Cebu, have been suffering a beating from social media for several years now. Some traditional media practitioners in Cebu are trying to adjust but the new technology is rather so pervasive that every ordinary Juan can now share with the public his or her view without even following the ethical standards that traditional media laid down through the years to ensure that the public, in SunStar’s case, our readers, would be protected from the corrupt and the unscrupulous who would want to spread misinformation–like lies and even half truths, or what we commonly call now as fake news–that tend to destroy society’s fabric.
In this case, the function of traditional media as purveyors of truth and decency has become even more important. Battling fake news also includes the practice of using “clickbait” to spur interest in half-truths and lies. This practice has wreaked havoc on the “inverted pyramid” structure that journalists follow to spread information.
Headlines in social media nowadays no longer “inverts” the pyramid but instead provide information that is minimal enough to prod the readers to “click” the story and increase the number of views. Thus, it is common to see headlines like “Keanu Reeves finally admits what we have known all along,” which is intriguing enough for us to click the story in order to know what Reeves has admitted even if the answer is non-existent in it.
Sadly, some editors are the ones being led by non-journalists into following the “clickbait” method. It is now common to see online editions of traditional media outlets “clickbaiting” their readers to increase views. Instead of leading the way for non-journalists to follow traditional headlining, they are the ones being led to the “clickbait” setup and are now “clickbaiting” their readers like there is no tomorrow. Bad.
Another bad practice is the creation of thumbnails for clickbait. Thumbnails, the ones we see on social media platforms like Youtube, are often more focused on luring readers to “click’ to increase views rather than to spread the truth. Even in such a “neutral” arena like sports, we see thumbnails claiming that an athlete has been “suspended” even if he or she wasn’t.
There’s for example this thumbnail claiming that Caitlin Clark is leaving the Women’s National Basketball Association or WNBA in the US and will soon be playing in Europe. This, even if Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, is strengthening the organization for next year’s run. And sports aficionados know that a player is almost always tied to a contract. How can Clark play in Europe with her existing contract with the Fever?
What I am saying is that social media is such a jumbled mess that traditional journalists and governments must now work to straighten the chaotic mess. Journalists are the professionals in the current setup and must therefore lead the way. They should not allow themselves to be led by non-journalists and non-professionals.