Click me…! The influence of clickbait on user engagement in social media and the role of digital nudging

Abstract

Clickbait to make people click on a linked article is commonly used on social media. We analyze the impact of clickbait on user interaction on Facebook in the form of liking, sharing and commenting. For this, we use a data set of more than 4,400 Facebook posts from 10 different news sources to analyze how clickbait in post headlines and in post text influences user engagement. The results of our study revealed that certain features (e.g., unusual punctuation and common clickbait phrases) increase user interaction, whereas others decrease engagement with Facebook posts. We further use our results to discuss the potential role of digital nudging in the context of clickbait. Our results contribute to understanding and making use of the effect of different framings in social media.

Yerel Haber Sitelerinin Tık Tuzakları ve Sosyal Medya Stratejisi Üzerine Bir Analiz

“…Dikkat çekmeyi ve insanları bir bağlantıya tıklamaya teşvik etmeyi amaçlayan; bir hikâye, başlık, resim gibi internete konulan materyaller tık tuzağı olarak adlandırılmaktadır (Oxford Learners Dictionaries, 2023; Cambridge Dictionary, 2023). İnsanların bir makaleye tıklamasını sağlamak için oluşturulan tık tuzakları sosyal medyada yaygın bir biçimde kullanılmaktadır (Jung, Stieglitz, Kissmer, Mirbabaie, & Kroll, 2022;Chakraborty, Sarkar, Mrigen, & Ganguly, 2017). Çok geniş alanda uygulanan tık tuzakları, internet haberciliğinin yaygınlaşmasıyla önemli bir sorun haline geldiği için konu ile ilgili dünyada ve Türkiye'de yapılan çalışmalarda, tık tuzaklarının sıklığı ve tuzaklarda kullanılan yöntemler tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır.…”

An Intelligent Mobile Application to Assist in Mathematics Learning and Discussions using Advanced Sortings for Multiple Platforms

“…Stieglitz argues that clickbait captions will destroy meaningful content within apps [13]. Similarly, Lischka highlights problems with populating algorithmic content on the app [14].…”

Clickbait as a Potential Threat in the Development of Cybercrime in Indonesia

“…Thirdly, an article written by Jung, et al (2022). 5 The article explains how journalists who create news on social media such as Facebook consider the use of clickbait as a form of motivating and attracting readers' attention.…”

“…Thirdly, an article written by Jung, et al (2022). 5 The article explains how journalists who create news on social media such as Facebook consider the use of clickbait as a form of motivating and attracting readers' attention. Unfortunately, the article only raised how the use of clickbait affects the reputation of online news media that was previously credible to become not credible and did not include the use of a second person in an additional clickbait feature.…”