The paradox of the modern world is that none of us like negative campaigning, negative advertising, negative/hyperbolic clickbait headlines or youtube videos… YET through our actions (clicks, likes, ““engagement””, donations, etc) we reinforce again and again, that these types of headlines/ads/videos are effective in motivating us to do a thing (donate to a candidate, click a youtube video, click a clickbait headline) than the more socially positive alternatives.
This is one reason why I think paying for good Journalism (or other forms of content is good). It changes the incentive structure when you pay directly, revenue is no longer tied to clicks and ad revenue, it is tied to a subscription. If the goal is getting a ‘click’ clickbait or hyperbole are effective, if the goal is building a base of subscribers who find your content valuable enough to pay for it, clickbait doesn’t help, and quality of content becomes more important. It aligns the media orgs incentives with your own. And it frees both you as a reader and the journalists/editors from the trap of clickbait which nobody likes (on the reader side or the creator side)