“Deceptive” clickbait headlines: Relevance, intentions, and lies

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Classic clickbait headlines often use hyperbolic and formulaic language to create information gaps that arouse the curiosity of readers. Such headlines are stylistically distinct from the headlines we find in traditional news media, and, as such, are easily recognisable as clickbait. However, a new type of clickbait headline has emerged which appears to have more in common stylistically with traditional newspaper headlines. Jodłowiec (2022) identifies and discusses examples of this new type of headline, referring to them as “deceptive clickbait”. She uses relevance-theoretic pragmatics to show how these headlines guide the readers to an interpretation which arouses their curiosity. On clicking, however, the readers find the content is mundane and trivial. Although these headlines are deceptive, Jodłowiec concludes that the writer has not lied, and that responsibility sits with the readers. In this article, I argue against these conclusions. I use relevance-theoretic pragmatics to show that the reader is entitled to take the high news value interpretation as the intended interpretation. Responsibility for this lies with the writer. I then consider two characterisations of the distinction between lying and misleading and show that in both cases at least some of the deceptive headlines can be considered to be lies.