Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Megan Nolette.
Speaker 2: And I'm Colin Lowva. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live. Doctors hate him
Speaker 2: because of this one strange trick.
Speaker 1: Look beautiful in these five simple steps.
Speaker 2: Seven common pet owner mistakes that could turn deadly.
Speaker 1: More than likely. These sentences seem familiar. Stories with names
Speaker 1: like these are all over the Internet. These stories promise
Speaker 1: a lot. They suggest clicking on them will solve everything,
Speaker 1: But often the websites on the other end are unhelpful.
Speaker 1: They have nothing to do with what they promised. They
Speaker 1: may lead to dangerous websites. They are clickbait.
Speaker 2: As troubling as these misleading stories can be, they do
Speaker 2: exist for a reason. Some clickbait exists to gain money.
Speaker 2: Some clickbait brings people to new sites. These stories take
Speaker 2: advantage of what experts call the curiosity gap to attract
Speaker 2: people's attention. The simple formula these stories use is designed
Speaker 2: to make people read or watch. But where did clickbait
Speaker 2: come from? And what happens when everything becomes clickbait? Today's
Speaker 2: Spotlight hopes to answer some of these questions.
Speaker 1: Clickbait has been around since the early years of the Internet,
Speaker 1: but the ideas behind clickbait have been around for much longer.
Speaker 1: It is similar to yellow or tabloid journalism. This kind
Speaker 1: of reporting started in the eighteen hundreds. Newspaper sellers understood
Speaker 1: that they could sell more papers if their stories were striking.
Speaker 1: Writers began to make up surprising stories, or they would
Speaker 1: report on things in the most extreme way possible. Truth
Speaker 1: did not matter if the story sold.
Speaker 2: Clickbait operates in a similar way, but the way people
Speaker 2: make money on the Internet is different than selling newspapers.
Speaker 2: Most websites make money through advertisements. These images or videos
Speaker 2: try to sell products to visitors. The more people see
Speaker 2: advertisements on their page, the more money websites get. Some
Speaker 2: advertisers pay by the amount of time people spend on
Speaker 2: a web page, but most advertisers pay each time someone
Speaker 2: visits the page.
Speaker 1: This business model has many advantages for Internet content creators.
Speaker 1: One person can make a lot of money if something
Speaker 1: they make is popular. Videos that are said to go
Speaker 1: viral get clicked on millions of times. Each of these
Speaker 1: clicks means more money for its creator's work. Often part
Speaker 1: of this work is making themselves stand out. Damian Radcliffe
Speaker 1: is a journalism teacher at the University of Oregon. He
Speaker 1: told the British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC, some people see
Speaker 1: this as a somewhat dirty business model.
Speaker 3: I did not share their opinion.
Speaker 1: It is just a digital reality.
Speaker 2: Sadly, most experts agree that this kind of business does
Speaker 2: not encourage truth telling. It is often easier for creators
Speaker 2: on social media to post without worrying about the facts.
Speaker 2: Sometimes creators post information that is incorrect. The information is
Speaker 2: usually shocking because it has little basis in reality. Readers
Speaker 2: may even know this, but they will click because the
Speaker 2: information looks interesting. Carlos Diaz Ruis is a teacher at
Speaker 2: Hankin University in Finland. He told The Conversation.
Speaker 3: There is a financial reason for websites to create more
Speaker 3: online use. Any content, true or not, that receives views, likes,
Speaker 3: and comments is highly valued.
Speaker 1: One of the most dangerous results of misinformation is in
Speaker 1: the political area. Sometimes this kind of clickbait comes from
Speaker 1: political actors, but just as often it comes from people
Speaker 1: hoping to make a profit. This bad information has real
Speaker 1: world effects. It may change the way that people see
Speaker 1: the world it may frighten It may even cause people
Speaker 1: to believe in things that simply are not true.
Speaker 2: One example of political misinformation comes from Southeast Asia. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, violent clashes between China and the Philippines
Speaker 2: broke out in the South China Sea. Soon after, misinformation
Speaker 2: about the conflict appeared on social media sites. Many posts
Speaker 2: made the fighting seem worse than it was. In one post,
Speaker 2: a social media user shared a picture of British soldiers
Speaker 2: leaving Afghanistan, but the user made it seem like they
Speaker 2: were soldiers from the United States. The posts said these
Speaker 2: soldiers were coming to invade.
Speaker 1: These posts had real world effects. They frightened people in
Speaker 1: both countries. The conflict seemed like it would become a war.
Speaker 1: The Ajen France Press or AFP, is a news organization
Speaker 1: based in France. In twenty twenty four, it showed that
Speaker 1: most of these posts did not come from any government. Instead,
Speaker 1: they came from people uninvolved with the situation.
Speaker 2: One member of an organized in Thailand spoke with the AFP.
Speaker 2: His organization created many false posts about the conflict. He
Speaker 2: said that they knew very little about the politics of
Speaker 2: the area. Instead, they created posts that would spread widely,
Speaker 2: each post could make them twenty to seventy US dollars.
Speaker 1: Not all clickbait is this harmful. At best, creating a
Speaker 1: shocking looking story means people will read it. It may
Speaker 1: be a good way to attract people's attention to something true.
Speaker 1: But at its worst, clickbait is deceptive. It makes people
Speaker 1: question what they know to be true. It may cause
Speaker 1: fear about events that did not happen.
Speaker 2: Even with these problems, clickbait will probably be around for
Speaker 2: a long time. People are interested in shocking things. There
Speaker 2: will be no reason for people to stop as long
Speaker 2: as a story can make money through a click.
Speaker 1: This is where media literacy comes in. This is the
Speaker 1: idea that a person can learn how to see what
Speaker 1: news is true and what is not. A person who
Speaker 1: is skilled in media literacy watches where their information comes from.
Speaker 1: They test shocking news against other news reports to test
Speaker 1: whether they confirm the information they understand, to watch what
Speaker 1: they read.
Speaker 2: These skills are difficult to develop. It often takes years,
Speaker 2: but in today's increasingly interconnected world, these skills are more
Speaker 2: important than ever. Understanding clibit does not just help protect
Speaker 2: people from falsehood. It does not just protect from advertisements.
Speaker 2: Media literacy helps people to be better citizens in a
Speaker 2: world that is increasingly online.
Speaker 1: Has clickbait ever fooled you? What about a misleading story?
Speaker 1: We would like to hear about your experiences. You can
Speaker 1: leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight
Speaker 1: English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok,
Speaker 1: and x. You can also get our programs delivered directly
Speaker 1: to your Android or Apple device through our free official
Speaker 1: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christman.
Speaker 2: The voices you heard were from the United States and
Speaker 2: the United Kingdom. Or quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 2: and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called Click on
Speaker 2: this video.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,