Teaching earth science students to recognize communicative intent in media headlines: clickbait phenomenon

Abstract

This paper examines ways of teaching Earth science students techniques to recognize manipulative clickbait in the online versions of American newspapers. The study presents an analysis of headlines in the online versions of the newspaper aiming to determine the specificities of the use of clickbait and to further classify the techniques through which it is employed. The analyzed data was collected from the Sports and Business sections of the 2021 online issues of the New York Times and the Washington Post. The frequency of clickbait use was found in each of the newspapers in general and in each of the studies section in particular. The analysis resulted in the classification of the techniques of achieving the clickbait effect. The individual characteristics of the journalists’ styles of the newspapers under study was further investigated. The quantitative analysis revealed varying amounts of clickbait in the headlines of the online newspapers.