Abstract
AN ANALYSIS OF CLICK-BAIT JOURNALISM IN DIGITAL MEDIA JOURNALISM
The internet, which has an increasing number of users all over the world, has an important place in our daily lives. Newspapers are also becoming digitalized by adapting themselves to the developing technology. This situation brings with it new ethical problems. The aim of this study is to reveal the extent to which the "click-bait", which is one of these ethical problems, is used by the most "clicked" newspapers in Turkey. In order to keep up to date, an analysis was made on the news published in the first three days of April 2022. During the period between 01.04.2022 and 03.04.2022, the research conducted on the websites of Hürriyet, Sabah and Sözcü newspapers revealed that all three newspapers applied to the ethical violation called click-bait. Among these newspapers, Sabah commits ethical violations by using the click trap method in approximately one out of every four news stories it publishes, and Hürriyet in approximately one out of every five news it publishes. Sözcü, on the other hand, uses the click trap method in approximately one out of every ten news stories. As a result of the developing technology, these newspapers, which have a serious decrease in daily newspaper sales, try to increase the number of clicks by using headlines that will create a sense of curiosity in the readers and lead them to "click", taking into account their economic concerns. While this situation provides them with an added value economically, it is an ethical violation when evaluated in terms of the journalism profession.
Keywords
Journalism, Ethics, Click-Bait, Digital Media
