UNICEF young reporters hunt for coronavirus clickbait

PODGORICA, 29 APRIL 2020 

In order to contribute to the accurate informing of citizens about coronavirus, our young reporters analyse and verify the accuracy of information published on social networks and in the media, and publish the conclusions of their analyses on the UNICEF Montenegro website.

One of their recent texts is titled “Hunt for Clickbait”.

"All of us have read many times a sensationalist headline that promised to give us new information with shocking news. However, when we started reading, we realized that the headline announced content that was not in the text. This is exactly what clickbait is – one of the most widespread media manipulations," explains young reporter Nastasja Gluscevic.

She analysed a series of clickbait articles to show that the headlines incorrectly announced the text that followed and she urges all citizens to pay attention to this phenomenon in the media.

"Many readers often read only the headlines, not the entire text. It is this behaviour that leads to the spread of misinformation and fake news. This is why media literacy is important. Critical evaluation of online content is crucial in preventing these types of deceptions,” emphasizes Nastasja.

It was no problem for her to find clickbait for analysis, because it is everywhere – in online media, social networks, websites, YouTube… because lately clickbait has become an inseparable part of devised strategies to increase the numbers of readers and to earn profits.

"Clickbait is designed to keep readers engaged long enough for the text to be opened and read to the end in the hope that the information promised in the headlines will indeed appear in the text. The more people click on a headline, the more visitors the site gets and the more they earn from ads,” Nastasja explains.

Therefore, her message to all citizens is to choose what they read and whom they trust, to use reliable sources of information and to check all information before sharing it with others.

Nastasja and other young reporters follow the examples of analyses from the Raskrinkavanje.me platform to verify the accuracy of information and use their publicly available methodology.

Anyone who has a dilemma and wants to check the accuracy of some information can send it to young reporters through UNICEF Montenegro's social networks – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.