Workshop on clickbait

This is a workshop with the aim to raise awareness on the existence of clickbait and how this can lead to missinformation.

The workshop addresses a challenge met by everyone active in the online environment. Clickbait gives certain unmet expectations regarding the content of an article and most of the time there is no link between the article and the title, thus the statement made in the title is false and/ or not funded on any arguments. 

Make sure that the methods are suitable for the desired number of participants. This workshop is suitable for groups not larger than 10. In case the group is newly formed, make sure you add some icebreakers in the beginning so participants feel more safe and relaxed.

The workshop is split in 3 phazes: 1) Introduction and getting to know each other 2) Main activity 3) Evaluation

As this is presented as an online workshop, it is necessary to provide a link for the meeting. Online can be found plenty of tools provided for free.

As this is presented as an online workshop, it is necessary to provide a link for the meeting. Online can be found plenty of tools provided for free.

1) Participants are asked to share the last article they read online and its title. Facilitator checks if there are any cases of clickbait. If they are not, the facilitator gives an example of clickbait to continue discussion. If there are, the facilitator encourages conversation by asking questions such as: What made you read that article? When did you realise the article had a different content than what the title was suggesting? Who wrote the article? What website promoted such article? Why do you believe content writers do this? From their conclusions, they define the term „clickbait”. 2) Participants are split in pairs. Each pair has 10 minutes to create an example of clickbait (short article and catchy title), on a preset title. After they finish, they receive another clickbait (created by another pair) and have the task to film themselves while they read the title and express what they expect to read based on the title and also read the article and actually say how they feel after reading it. Plennary, all/ a few videos are watched and discussed based on all participants experience: How easy was for you to create a clickbait? Which are the benefits content writers wish to acheive by practicing clickbait? What effects does a clickbait title have upon the public? – here we can discuss how missinformation can be spread when public reads only the title of the article. How can we avoid clickbait? – here it is recommended to encourage young people not to share clickbait articles but also to check the source of information before reading an article etc.

Based on the discussion, the facilitator draws general conclusions while inviting participants to contribute.

At the end, ask participants to share one thing related to clickbait, that they discovered during the workshop.

Invite participants to apply starting now, what thye have learnt on how to avoid clickbait etc.