Reality of the press in Philippine online social media : understanding clickbait and its features

Abstract

This study looked into clickbait features among twenty-five headlines found in Philippine online news media outlets, found explicitly on Facebook. Through Chakraborty et al.‟s method of identifying clickbait, we looked at the headlines through sentence structure, word patterns, and clickbait language used. The collected data were carefully inspected and deliberated through media discourse analysis. The study revealed that compound and complex sentences are the dominant structures found in the gathered headlines. Moreover, it showed that unusual punctuation patterns, cardinal numbers, and contracted words are frequently used in terms of word patterns. In terms of clickbait language, the usual usage of hyperbolic terms, common clickbait phrases, and determiners are commonly found in the headlines. Altogether, the study‟s result unveiled that the headlines embodying the features are categorized as clickbait headlines following Chakraborty‟s method of classifying clickbait.