On Wednesday last week, various news sites reported that Taiwanese pop icon Liu Wen Zheng (劉文正) had died. Within less than 24 hours, the public would learn that Liu was still alive. His mourning on the Internet abruptly ended and the media were accused of not fact-checking the source.
On the same day, some sites reported that comedian Sung Shao-ching (宋少卿) was mourning the death of Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安) — or so it appeared based on the headline. Reading the article revealed that this Huang An was not the pro-China singer Huang An, but a friend of Sung’s who happened to share the same name.
People quickly accused the media of using misleading headlines to increase their click-through rate.
After Sung deleted the Facebook post that led to the reporting, some news outlets removed or altered their stories and moved on.
Be it reporting on the alleged deaths of Liu or Huang, the media were able to use it to boost their traffic enormously. The articles were much more popular than political news about Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) or New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜).
Undoubtedly, in this era of amusement, the public tends to embrace shallow stories for pleasure and excitement.
ECHO CHAMBER
News reports about Liu and Huang were mostly edited by “keyboard reporters” and distributed by breaking news centers or news networks. Such reports easily lead to controversy. The main reason is that the sources are basically the same, and reporters rewrite or quote from each other.
Every news outlet follows the rule of “if you report it, I must report it, too,” and therefore, if an outlet releases a piece of breaking news, this news is likely to be released on another platform, perhaps with a different headline.
In less than five minutes, an online news outlet can issue a “news flash” that includes just a headline and a brief paragraph. The purpose is to drive traffic to their Web site.
To be fair, keyboard reporters responsible for news flashes and wrap-ups seldom drop the ball. The case of Liu and his former manager was rare.
CLICKBAIT
However, if a mistake occurs in a news flash, it is usually a big one. Reports about the death of a celebrity as clickbait are a much more common case.
Although a well-established media corporation is not a content farm, some editors tend to use sensational headlines for their stories, which often do not correspond with the content of the articles.
More often than not, readers would not know what the news is about without clicking on a link, as the headline uses unclear keywords such as “this person” or “that incident.”
Even some senior editors are fond of using clickbait and sensational headlines.
If a news report appears without the names of a reporter or editor, it usually comes from a real “senior” media person. They are often in charge of breaking news centers, and for the sake of traffic, some of them would have to compose some misleading information. The situation indicates a rather bleak future for the media industry.
The senior media people can decide which of the following should be the case: “The medium is the message” or “the medium is the massage.” They can either let the situation worsen or rectify the problems associated with overemphasizing traffic.
Vincent Chen is a manager in the information and communications industry. He lives in Taipei.
Translated by Liu Yi-hung
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