Charles W. Moore
Occasional thoughts and deeds of an Engineer
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Clickbait
Posted on October 20th, 2020 No commentsI did a speed read of this article but should have read it in more detail – perhaps I will do that this afternoon.
It is a golden rule of journalism, taught to any news reporter at the beginning of their career – your introduction should grab the reader straight away.
If you cannot hold someone’s attention for a sentence, you have no hope of getting them to read the rest of your article.
The same is true for headlines; stark, witty or intriguing ones can draw the reader’s eye to a story.
Headline writing has long been considered a skill but, in the digital age, a new word has become synonymous with online journalism – clickbait. Ha ha, did I get your attention? Finis.