Manipulative Means in Clickbait Headlines of Online Media

Abstract

The paper deals with manipulative means in clickbait headlines of online media. The aim of the article is to distinguish and examine the used in implicit clickbaits manipulative means which help to cultivate the reader’s interest and make them pass to the article. The relevance of the current investigation is determined by a wide spread of clickbaits in media cyberspace, the users’ negative attitude to them and their constant evolvement for concealment and formal conformation to the criteria of non-blocked headlines. The analysed material comprises the clickbait headlines in online media whose announcements are presented on large Russian news aggregators. The material was selected within 2018-2022. The overall number of investigated materials is 3050 units. The material is analysed using such methods as introspection, conceptual modelling, unselected and purposive samplings and interpretative analysis. The analysed material shows that according to the degree of connection with the article clickbat headlines can be divided into 4 types: 1) clickbait headlines of “universal” wording applicable to texts with any content; 2) clickbait headlines which are not connected with the content of the article, 3) clickbait headlines connected with the content of the article via their non-sensational parts; 4) clickbait headlines reflecting the content of the article. Three first types are considered obvious clickbaits while the last one is an implicit clickbait. The manipulative means which give an opportunity to make a clickbait implicit include manipulation with word meanings, stylistic and grammatical manipulations, provoking logical mistakes, reticence, overstatement, neglecting the time factor, taking a statement out of context, substitution of concepts, assimilation of headlines to typical associations.

Keywords

• online media
• clickbait
• obvious clickbait
• implicit clickbait
• manipulative means
• headline
• curiosity gap