Hooked by the bait

The urge to click on a link with a sensational headline and an even more eye-ball grabbing picture is only human. It’s this very consumer psyche that click-bait websites feed on. Our Facebook feeds and favourite news websites are loaded with links to sensational news — Bollywood being the top contender in the game.

After the much-talked about wedding of Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, social media feeds witnessed a burst of fake quotes by Deepika’s ex Ranbir Kapoor, saying that the newly-wed couple planned to break-up. 

 

Another story put up talks of how “Gauri Khan has separated from Shah Rukh and she breaks down in the interview where she recalls her traumatic days with the actor!” Again, fake news.

The reason these websites are called ‘clickbait’ is suggested in its very name — they bait consumers with a sensational headline to increase traffic and clicks on the websites.

While newspaper organisations pay a harsh price for incorrect reports social media seems to get away with it. This is largely because there are no concrete laws against fake news in the purview of social media, and hence taking action becomes cumbersome.

 

How do celebrity managers handle these ‘rumours’? Because they hound the newspaper, threatening to sue even if one uncomplimentary line is written about their star client. And with these nasty stories, they are mum. Do celebs look at it as “any news is good publicity”. 

Prabhat Choudhary of Spice PR and the brainchild behind Baahubali’s marketing strategy feels that one should know which rumour to pursue and which one to let go. “As a publicist or a manager, you need to have discretion as to what will gain traction and what will not. If it is the news of a death, then there is no point adding fuel to the fire by taking any kind of action, because the audience is anyway not going to be interested in it once the news is classified as fake.” He adds that going digital has changed the face of gossip and news.