Clickbait, or the principle of clickbait at least, predates internet by a long while. I remember those hoardings at the pitch of the Evening Standard sellers, declaring “FAMOUS ACTOR DIES” and if you were tempted to buy the paper you’d discover it was someone who was in Emmerdale in 1974.
What the web has done is to refine this technique, luring you in with something more specific, but often irrelevant, reductive and often plain insulting. An obvious example was when the double-Oscar winner Maggie Smith died and all the headlines mentioned was Harry Potter and Downton Abbey – the last-named being a show so banal that even Dame Maggie herself couldn’t be arsed to watch it.
But yesterday they were outdone by The Independent, which marked the death of Connie Francis, a performer who sold over 100 millions in a turbulent, incident-packed career, with this headline:
SINGER BEHIND VIRAL TIKTOK HIT DIES AT 87
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