Prominent American comedian and actor Amy Schumer has joined up with Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, her second cousin, to urge for tighter gun-control laws. Schumer was in Australia recently to promote a new movie, so Australian news sites led with her involvement in the campaign.
Below is how two Australian news sites teased the story on their front pages. One of these images is from youth-focused entertainment and news site BuzzFeed, famed for its listicles and clickbait. The other, on the left, is from The Sydney Morning Herald.
The SMH is the country’s most-trusted newspaper, according to Essential trust in media figures. But we wonder whether people would hold it in such high regard if they were primarily thinking of its website. Although there are plenty of serious news investigations on the SMH website, which tend to get at least a few hours’ prominent placement online, they fight for attention with an awful lot of clickbait.
Even when the website does cover a serious story — and we’re not disputing that Schumer’s stand against gun violence is newsworthy — the homepage editors tend to slap on sensationalist headlines devoid of information.
We in the Crikey bunker have been keeping an eye on the SMH‘s worst “clickbait” headlines for a few weeks now. Here are some of the worst offenders:
I hope Michaela and her dog are okay after the attack of the one-eyed pig!
This has annoyed me for some time with Fairfax. I’m glad others are noticing.
I too have been keeping track of their offences. But I get bored of documenting it. I just wish more people would sit up and take notice of this ridiculous trend.
Here’s a good screengrab I took recently..
http://frigginawesomeimontv.tumblr.com/post/121819836040/why
And this one’s a beauty:
http://frigginawesomeimontv.tumblr.com/post/113932760400/clickbait-to-the-max
I literally now avoid clicking on all clickbait headlines on the smh. I would rather not know.
Totally agree. It’s becoming pretty awful – and I’m a Fairfax fan. BUT if it helps to keep Fairfax’s investigative and public interest journalism alive then it’s forgiveable (especially considering they are pretty much the only commercial media outlet investing in the sort of journalism that is so vital to our democracy). I just hope they don’t stop publishing the daily print papers.
I subscribe to the SMH and have been very depressed by the news coverage on their web site; it has just got worse and worse – might as well buy the New Idea or one of those trashy magazines. I was disgusted that they felt they had to sack one of their best journos in Mike Carlton – the rot really set in after his departure. If this continues, I will not be keeping up my subscription. Pity.
[I just hope they don’t stop publishing the daily print papers.]
The iPad app versions of the SMH and Age are much more similar to the print paper than the websites. I’m pretty sure they’ll move to a model where only the weekend papers are printed and the rest is digital-only. The combination of disappearing ad revenue and generational shifts in news consumption makes a daily newspaper more or less impossible to make profitable any more. Even the West Australian, Courier Mail and Advertiser are losing money despite having monopolies on daily printed news.