Clickbait Contagion in International Quality Media: Tabloidisation and Information Gap to Attract Audiences

The competition to attract audiences has led to an increase in sensational or misleading headlines and content, with the aim of garnering user clicks in the news media. This dynamic alters the journalistic manner in which news is presented, and it does so by reducing informative quality and eroding the trust of the audience. This study examines the proliferation of clickbait strategies on the front pages of reputable international ‘serious’ press and how it manifests in readers’ consumption and sharing habits. We carried out a comparative content analysis of digital news articles from four international media sources (N = 1680): The Guardian (UK), The New York Times (USA), El País (Spain) and Público (Portugal). Our results confirm the existence of clickbait (N = 516) on the front pages, the most read content and the articles most shared on social media. Most clickbait titles resort to headline strategies of containing incomplete information that affect both hard and soft news topics. This particular finding highlights the inclusion of clickbait in the agenda of ‘serious’ journalism, despite the negative implications on information quality and trust. Associated with irrelevant content, this ‘hook’ captures the attention of the online audience more than the social media audience.