The Decline of the Traditional Newspaper

When I go to my grandparents house, they always have newspapers.  They have been receiving the newspaper at their house for as long as they can remember.  To them, the newspaper is more than just a source of information.  They use it to start a fire, line an area to put fresh vegetables on the floor, line a plate to capture the grease from fried foods and much more.

Now, at my parents house, the only time you see a newspaper is if it came from my grandparent's house or there was a special mention of me or my brothers in the paper.  Mom would run buy up as many as possible to put in a scrapbook.

Even my parents are relying more and more on the internet to get their news stories, especially local stories.  If I need to find something, I definitely go to the online news sources.  The move towards the internet, changes the way the news outlets make money; after all, they are in the business to make money.  They have moved from traditional paid advertisements to something called "click bait".

What is "clickbait"?  According to Urban Dictionary, " It means what you think it means; bait for clicks.  It's a link which entices you to click on it.  The "bait" comes in many shapes and sizes, but is usually intentionally misleading and/or crassly provocative.  Clicking will inevitably cause disappointment.  Clickbait is usually created for money."

Nina's definition of "clickbait" -- Annoying and gets in the way.  Below is a good example of clickbait and it happened to be displayed on Urban Dictionary when I was looking up the definition.


The enticement part of this is that it plays to the fact that I live in Rome, GA and it implies that there is a new law that I need to read up on or I may end up handcuffed in the back seat of a police car.  It is actually a car insurance add to get you to change insurance agencies.

This article titled "11 Reasons we're too Dumb to Resist Clickbait" is a good article describing clickbait and why we have a tendency to gravitate towards them.  The title is catchy and it definitely made you want to click it......





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