Contributed by Jenna Oberthaler
We often hear presidential candidates talking about education or healthcare, but this year candidate Donald Trump is talking about gay couples. The New York Times quotes Trump on gay couples, saying, “If two people dig each other, they dig each other.” The president of the Log Cabin Republicans says, “He will be the most gay-friendly Republican nominee for president ever.” Could these comments be related to why Donald Trump has had the most followers on Twitter? Compared to other candidates, Trump is the only candidate to reach 5 million followers. Although Trump has been in the lead for social media sites, Twitter and Facebook, since February, his recent comments on gay and lesbian couples could be a factor as to what will keep him in the lead. In the New York Times article, Trump doesn’t only voice his opinion on couples but he goes as far as to say he opposes the recent law passed in North Carolina prohibiting people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to the gender they were born with. Trump believes transgender people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate.” My question to you readers is, do you think Trump is using his favoritism towards transgender couples to gain votes or distract the comments that he has already made and cannot take back? Obviously, Trump wants people to vote for him, but it seems as if this could be a distraction to allow people to forget about the things he has said in the past throughout his campaign. There are many other important things that Trump has said but this seems to have gained many people’s attention, I believe that this could be due to how controversial the topic is. Distraction or not, Trump will go down in history for siding with gay couples as a Republican candidate.
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![]() Contributed by Enemy the Ox What makes you click on that certain link that appears on your news feed? Is it that feel-good story sure to warm your heart? Or is it that politician hell-bent on destroying/saving the country? For me, it is usually a good ol' case of street justice. The stories we see online are interesting, but more importantly they are odd and out of the ordinary. We like the unexpected or unusual. The headline is often the most important aspect of the story or link. The headline is the first sign that the reader is interested and will decide whether or not the reader will continue to the actual story. Headlines on social media are tailored in a way so that the user who is reading the headline is left wanting to know more. A headline that leads the user to a story and fulfills the reader’s expectations would have to be considered a great headline. It did the job. Before the internet, news outlets would put their top story on the front page and the headline was usually 20 times the size of the article and printed in a bold font. The front page of a newspaper acts very similarly to a headline one would see on a news feed. Unlike the paper, the online headline needs to attract the reader or viewer without the large font or the entire front page of the medium. The top story now has to potentially compete with no story whatsoever. These lackluster stories are not even stories or news; this is the garbage we think about when we hear the term “clickbait.” All headlines on the Internet can be thought of as a form of clickbait. The headline, by nature of its purpose, is a form of bait. It is designed to attract the reader with hopes the reader latches on. Generating traffic on the site is key to any successful website. This traffic can lead to content going viral. A solid headline combined with an intriguing story can be very potent. The story does not have to be true, such as the case with the ever elusive Slender Man. This creature is an online form of urban folklore. Users can write fake stories and Photoshop images to accompany the stories in hopes of it going viral within their communities. Businesses have discovered how to use the content we enjoy clicking on in order to tailor our content to what big business thinks we are interested in (Salon). The Internet may feel like an open sandbox for all to play but in reality we are in a zoo being observed stakeholders for special interests. The Internet used to be a place where we could ignore mainstream media or radio and explore the digital world with no barriers. With the popularity of social media, some barriers are more prevalent than others and we do not even notice it. This is the issue with clickbait. Businesses are in business for one reason: to make money. Internet headlines' main job for businesses is to make money and, to do that, site visitors must first click on the link. The link could lead to a very satisfying article or piece of information or it could lead you to an advertisement or a seriously depressing article with no relevance to the headline. There could be a headline that promises one service and deploys another. This is the “bait” in click bait. The bait and switch some would say. Twitter is one of the most notorious offenders of this social construction of clickbait. The online settings explicitly tell you they know what you want to read. One has to wonder about how powerful clickbait is and the future of personal decisions online. |
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