News: Click bait versus actual news headline

News: Click bait versus actual news headline

I’m so old, I was taught that a news headline encapsulated a brief summary of the news article. Today, the purpose of a headline is to act as “click bait”. This screen capture from Google News illustrates the concept – the one at the bottom is the “old school” approach.

The past week has seen a flood of “news” reports about immigration issues-some were mostly correct yet some, may be many, were poorly researched, left out context, and were intended primarily as propaganda messaging. The Administration is daffy in its understanding of propaganda – and oblivious to the public response to its actions. I was traveling so I ignored most of it but I have saved aside some items for possible posting here, later.
It seems the primary purpose of both social media and news media is propaganda. The concept of an objective, unbiased news media has vanished.
Google has also fallen off the deep end. I looked up a topic related to news media publishing. Google Search helpfully provided several highlighted quick answers at the top. The first quick answer I looked at was sourced to an anonymous post on an investment forum! The anonymous poster had made nearly 7,000 posts mostly about marijuana legalization. Google elevated an anonymous online forum post from a drug fan to an authoritative answer about publishing! Mind blown.

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