This blog post about a CJR piece about clickbait headlines doesn’t have one

I’m not sure why this CJR.org piece by Michael Driscoll frames the debate as internet vs. newspapers, but it’s a smart reaction to Facebook’s new policy on “clickbait” headlines.

The headline: “Keep calm and write a headline worth reading.”

Facebook announced recently that it would step up its efforts “to weed out stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see.” Part of that is reducing “click-baiting headlines.” From Facebook’s company blog:

“Click-baiting” is when a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see. Posts like these tend to get a lot of clicks, which means that these posts get shown to more people, and get shown higher up in News Feed.

The example Facebook used was a post from Celeb Style Weekly that read, “You’ll NEVER believe which two stars got into a fight on the red carpet last night!! CLICK to find out which starlet they were fighting over!!”

Saved you a click: Celeb Style Weekly is a mock page created for the blog post.

“Hyperbolic come-ons of this sort run counter to principles more traditional (some might say outdated) news outlets take pride in following,” Driscoll writes. He continues:

Among them: Keep the exaggeration in check and the blowout language in your back pocket, because someday you may need those explosive adjectives when a truly big story lands. Using “destroys” to describe what a comedian did to a politician’s position looks odd when the word also characterizes the devastation wrought by deadly floods.

Driscoll also notes that if a potential reader’s motivation to click on your story can be killed with one or two words, the specialty of Twitter feeds like @SavedYouAClick, “It’s the story that’s the problem.”

Comedian Louis CK makes a similar point in his comedy special “Hilarious,” which I won’t embed here because too much in the routine is inappropriate. He talks about people using extreme words like “amazing” and “hilarious” to describe things that aren’t.

“We go right to the top shelf with our words now,” he says. “‘Dude, it was amazing. It was amazing.’ Really? You were amazed? You were amazed by a basket of chicken wings? Really? Amazing? What are you gonna do with the rest of your life now? What if something really happens to you? [Here he describes Jesus returning and impregnating the speaker with the 'new lord.'] What are you gonna call that? You used ‘amazing’ on a basket of chicken wings!”