BREAKING: The Growing Importance of Clickable News
Have you ever found yourself simply reading the headlines, and then moving along? Not clicking on a news story if the title doesn't grab you? Watching or reading something simply because it has shock value? We all know the phrase about judging a book by its cover, and how it applies to all aspects of life. Judging something simply by the looks of it can prohibit any psychological growth or inspiration. But judging a book by its cover is exactly what social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and the need for shock value has caused in the human race.
The fact is, news companies don’t cover something if it isn't shocking or if it challenges what the target viewership already knows. People like to have their jaws drop in regards to something they had never thought about before, so they can have a fascinating conversation starter. People also love to dig their teeth into a story that proves what they believed all along. We see it whenever somebody gets canceled, Twitter always EXPLODES with the masses thumbs tapping away saying “I knew something was wrong all along.” People loved to be proved right, not wrong, and love anything with a little shock value.
This isn't news to anyone. But what is something to ponder is how these phenomena are being pushed by the media, and how that is influencing the public's worldview.
The real story is usually there all along, but the public just doesn’t want to listen. People didn't want to hear about Lorena Bobbit's history of abuse, and how the real facts of that night would lead one to believe that what she did was not necessarily as awful as the public presumed.
The Bobbit story, which you can learn all about on the You’re Wrong About episode that covers the story of a woman cutting off her husband's penis. First, that story, when taken at face value, is funny and shocking, and further, it confirms the idea society already has about women: crazy.
But in reality, John Bobbit had repeatedly raped and abused Lorenna and she was simply fighting back by protecting herself from a continuously violent man.
But long articles detailing the true history and context of the events would only be appealing to a few. On top of that, there is the question of who would believe Lorenna.
Actions like this by the media stunt empathy in society and is the kind of thing that feeds into cancel culture. When you only know the worst part of the story you are bound to hate the star. And for years, the continuing high demand for new, shocking, and easy to comprehend information has pushed this lack of empathy over the edge.
This also plays into the process of virtue signaling and social media activism waves. The first time a catastrophe happens Instagram stories are filled with condolences and petitions, but as that event continues to happen, the online activism scene cares less and less about it until its shock value has entirely worn off and similarly, its coverage has as well.
The news is no longer what matters, it's what is clickable.
And continuing this way leads us down a road of only reading the headlines until we don’t read anything at all.
