Sensational Headlines Research Articles

Pragmatic Perception of Sensationalism: A Comparison of British and Malaysian Online Newspapers Headline Constructions

This study examines the pragmatic features of sensationalist headlines in online newspapers, comparing The Times (UK) and The Star (Malaysia) in 2024. Using discourse analysis on 60 headlines, we investigate how sensationalism shapes public opinion in the digital age. The research addresses a gap in cross-cultural analysis of media influence and aims to enhance media literacy. Results indicate that headline writers employ various pragmatic elements, with speech acts being the most prevalent, to convey intended messages and engage readers. Both overt and implicit use of pragmatic features effectively express themes of victory and liberation across both publications. While the study provides insights into pragma-linguistic strategies in sensational headline construction, its limited sample size suggests the need for broader future research. The findings offer valuable insights for media practitioners, researchers, and consumers, highlighting the importance of critical media consumption in an era of increasing sensationalism.

Penggunaan Algoritma K-Nearest Neighbors(KNN) dalam Klasifikasi Artikel Clickbait Berbahasa Indonesia

Clickbait is a strategy commonly used to attract readers' attention with promising sensational or intriguing headlines. However, often these clickbait headlines do not correspond to the actual content of the news, resulting in disappointment for the readers. Therefore, this study aims to classify clickbait news headlines in the Indonesian language using the K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN) method. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the ability of the K-NN method to classify clickbait news headlines in the Indonesian language. Thus, it is expected to provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of this method in identifying clickbait headlines. This study utilizes the K-NN method to classify clickbait news headlines. The data consists of 800 training data and 200 test data. The training and testing processes are conducted by varying the number of neighbors (k) and using various supporting features. The results show that the best performance of the K-NN method is achieved with a number of neighbors k=11, yielding an accuracy of 80.5%, Precision of 85%, Recall of 81%, and F-measure of 80%. Testing with 20 new data also resulted in an accuracy rate of 90%. Additionally, several unique words that frequently appear in clickbait headlines are identified, such as "apa" (what), "kenapa" (why), "nih" (here), "alasan" (reason), and "wow". This research contributes to identifying clickbait news headlines in the Indonesian language using the K-NN method. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for further research and provide better insights into how the K-NN method can be applied in classifying clickbait headlines.

A Series of Suicides and Homicides by Cyanide in Türkiye: Exploring the Role of Media Reports and the Copycat Effect

Objectives: This paper focuses on the intentional deaths by cyanide that occurred in Turkey and aims to discuss the effect of internet and the media on these cases. Methods: Five highly circulated daily newspapers were selected and the term “siyanür”, which means “cyanide” in Turkish, were searched within their online search function between 2017-2021. A Google Trends analysis was performed with “siyanür+siyanur” as the keyword, “Turkey” as the region, and “1/1/2017-12/31/2021” as the custom time range. Results: Twenty different incidents and news reports of cyanide related suicides and/or homicides with 29 total deaths were found. In Google Trends analysis, seven out of total 8 periods of increased search interest coincided with the news reports related to cyanide deaths. Conclusions: The authors observed a surge in cyanide-related incidents following a highly publicized case in May 2019, with a peak in November 2019. The study highlights the influence of media coverage on subsequent incidents, with newspapers often using sensational headlines and providing detailed information on suicide methods. Reporting a news article on suicide requires great care and caution. Thus, the guidelines on reporting suicide related news should be implemented nationwide with a collaboration between media professionals and health-care experts.

Misleading Polls in the Media: Does Survey Clickbait Have Social Consequences?

Abstract In today’s competitive information environment, clicks are the currency of the digital media landscape. Clickbait journalism attempts to entice attention with provocative and sensational headlines, but what are the implications when public opinion polls are the hook? Does the use of survey clickbait—news stories that make misleading claims about public opinion—have implications for perceptions of the public, journalists, or the polling industry? In two survey experiments conducted in the United States, we find that exposure to apolitical survey clickbait that makes exaggerated claims about the incompetence of the American public undermines perceptions of their capacity for democratic citizenship. At the same time, we find no evidence that this type of survey clickbait damages the reputations of the media or polling industry, suggesting that the media may have perverse incentives to use low-quality polls or to misrepresent polling results to drive traffic.

Predicting Sensationalism in Suicide Story Headlines.

Objective: Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, and media publicity plays a role in suicide rates. The United States offers guidelines for the reporting of suicide. This study evaluated guideline adherence in newspaper and newswire publications covering celebrity suicide deaths. The research also assessed whether the sensationalism of article headlines could be predicted by variables reflecting nonadherent reporting. Method: Publications from 2013 to 2018 reporting on nine celebrity suicides were evaluated via content analysis. Adherence was assessed in a two-step hierarchical linear regression to determine which variables predicted sensationalism in headlines. Results: Overall adherence to reporting guidelines was moderate. Newspaper disclosure of suicide method only, suicide method and location, and note contents significantly predicted headline sensationalism in the first regression model, R2 = 22%. The sensationalism in the body of the article and other variables additionally predicted headline sensationalism in the second regression model, R2 = 55%. Limitations: This study is limited to celebrity suicide reporting and may not reflect media reporting trends of noncelebrity suicide deaths. Conclusion: Findings reveal that sensationalism in the body of the article and other variables uniquely contributed to sensationalism in newspaper headlines. This suggests that the public could be at risk for reading harmful content not consistent with reporting recommendations about suicide because of the initial attraction to sensational headlines.

Social Media English in Nigeria and the New Crime Wave

This study explores the social media English in Nigeria and the new crime wave. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of systemic functional linguistics and forensic linguistics, the study adopts a qualitative data analysis approach to examine the linguistic devices used in the portrayal of criminal activities. The research delves into the language of crime, reviewing related literature and analyzing selected posts for their use of specific linguistic devices. These devices include slang and code words, metaphors and euphemisms, sensational headlines, and biased language. The study reveals that these linguistic devices play a crucial role in the construction and perception of criminal activities on social media platforms. Slang and code words, for instance, often serve as a form of coded communication among criminals, while metaphors and euphemisms are used to downplay the severity of criminal acts or to disguise illegal activities. Sensational headlines and biased language, on the other hand, can influence public opinion and perpetuate stereotypes about crime and criminals. This study contributes to the understanding of how language is used in the context of crime on social media platforms, offering valuable insights for law enforcement agencies, policy makers, and researchers in the fields of linguistics and criminology. It underscores the need for further research in this area, particularly in the era of digital communication where language plays a pivotal role in shaping societal narratives about crime.

Images of (in)security: Visualizing borders, migrants and control in Serbia's news media

Media images of borders and their control have been one of the most dominant frames in reporting on the migrant crisis in European media and the negative coverage of the topic of migrants, presenting them as a threat to security and public health dominates media narratives around the world. This paper examines the way migrants and refugees have been portrayed on the borders of Serbia, a transit country alongside the Western Balkans migration corridor. The mixed method analysis is based on 300 images published in relevant national and regional print media and their online versions from 2015 until 2020. The results show that the visual depiction of walls, wires, control, law and order, modern technological equipment, security providers, and important political authorities have been often intensified with sensational headlines and tabloid coverage and at the same time confronted with images framing migrants as violent and deviant, threatening borders, people, and security.

Style-linguistic characteristics of title in Bosnia and Herzegovina press

It seems completely impossible today to imagine life without mass media. The development of modern technologies has made mass media available to everyone. Mass media, in our case the press, sometimes try to interest and excite their users with their sensational headlines, sometimes make them think, and sometimes even entertain. However, it is very important to keep in mind that each medium shapes the message according to its own language, and an integral part of the languages of the mass media are usually different stylistic and linguistic means. Following earlier analyses of journalistic style, this paper will offer a stylistic-linguistic analysis exclusively of titles, as important and recognizable features of journalistic style, whose task is to be particularly effective in provoking the reader's attention and therefore can appear in the form of rhetorical questions, phrases, already established journalistic templates, etc. , which reflects their expressiveness. In addition, the analysis of the headlines of daily newspapers from the territory of bosnia and herzegovina (osloboenje, nezavisne novine and dnevni list) confirmed that on the phoneticphonological level, for example, there is a difference in writing foreign names, i. E. Names of clubs, awards, proper names, etc. Among these three newspapers, that on the morphological plan, verbs are most often used in the present and future, that the superlative forms of adjectives are often represented, that syntaxic, lexical-semantic figures are used that give the title a stronger, stylistically colored meaning - elliptical sentences, metaphor , metonymy with, of course, an unavoidable lexicon of foreign origin where anglicisms and latinisms dominate, along with some words of oriental origin, and among the dominant functions of the titles are referential (informative), popularistic, expressive and aesthetic.

Effect of online video infotainment on audience attention

Based on the attention economy theory, this study used the regression analysis method to analyse the effect of online video information entertainment on audience attention’s breadth, depth, engagement, and validity. The empirical research results show that highly positive and negative emotions significantly impact the audience’s attention in infotainment. We found that content storytelling, star characters, soft news themes, and sensational headlines have a significant positive effect. From the perspective of online video and media platforms, time fragmentation significantly impacts the audience’s attention positively and negatively. The diversification of presentation methods, the number of labels, and authoritative media have significant positive effects, whereas the number of topics has a significant negative impact.

Enhancing awareness to break the stigma among LGBTQ+ health care workers to curb monkeypox transmission: correspondence.

Dear Editor, In July 2022, WHO proclaimed monkeypox (MPX) an international health emergency, and at the time of writing this letter, 83 539 cases were reported in 110 countries across the globe (https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/index.html). The population that has close contact with individuals infected with MPX is at elevated risk of contracting the infection. Health care workers are strongly linked to the assessment, management, and direct treatment of patients with MPX infection, whether suspected or proven1. Developed countries possess a well-organized health care system with appropriate training to the workers and sensitizing them about MPX. However, in developing and less developed countries, health care workers are not trained adequately and lack the confidence to curb MPX transmission. Additionally, to gain public attention through sensationalism, the media has started to define the relationship among Men having sex with men, MPX, and HIV. This has the propensity to further stigmatize MPX carriers2. Stigma causes people to hide diseases, which spreads them untraceably and worsens outbreaks. The rise in stigma in society has disturbed the health care sector, especially health care workers. Health care professionals, particularly those belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning(LGBTQ)+ community, who are exposed to the MPX can conceal their disease status due to the stigma in the early phases of the disease3. Another stigma is the fake narrative that MPX is a ‘gay disease’. Employers in the workplace would assume that individuals who disclose they are infected with MPX are LGBTQ+ or vice versa. This provides a risk of transmitting the infection inside the hospital settings. Apart from this, in countries like India, primary health care workers are regarded as the foundation of the health care system, and they are essential for delivering health care needs to rural areas. The societal stigma and improper training will further weaken the health care system recovering from the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and may pose the risk of MPX transmission at a faster rate in rural areas. Hence, a vast lacuna is generated in how to fight the stigma that is linked with MPX among health care workers. We propose the following strategies that would assist the existing guidelines and recommendations framed by government and health care bodies to combat MPX transmission: Conducting one day workshop/awareness programs in hospitals and primary health care centers to sensitize health care workers and general public on MPX (strong emphasis on symptoms and transmission). Placing wall posters, pamphlets and displaying advertisements both in TV and radio emphasizing that MPX could affect anyone irrespective of gender, sex, age or sexual orientation and not only LGBTQ+. This could partially stop the circulation of fake narratives. Framing strict rules to refrain media sources from using emotionally charged language, incorrect contents, fake news, and sensational headlines pointing LGBTQ community to attain social media traffic. The gay and bisexual communities, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in general, should not be held responsible for the spread of the disease because this would further stigmatize them. In order to communicate with them, a comprehensive strategy should be combined with the use of specific channels, such as websites, dating apps, and media programmes. Overall, effective communication about MPX is crucial in combating the disease and avoiding fear and stigma. The use of polite language with patients, fostering the distribution of reliable scientific knowledge, and giving accurate and timely information on MPX symptoms and preventative techniques are crucial. This will create an environment where the disease and its effects may be discussed freely and honestly to effectively curb the outbreak. Ethical approval Not applicable. Sources of funding NIL. Author contribution Dr R.S.K., Dr S.S. performed literature search and drafted the letter. Conflicts of interest disclosure The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests. Research registration unique identifying number (UIN) Name of the registry: not applicable. Unique identifying number or registration ID: not applicable. Hyperlink to your specific registration (must be publicly accessible and will be checked): not applicable. Guarantor The submission is a correspondence. No new study was performed. All authors accept full responsibility for the submitted letter. Data statement The correspondence is based exclusively on resources that are publicly available on the internet and duly cited in the ‘References’ section. No primary data was generated and reported in this manuscript. Therefore, data has not become available to any academic repository.

The Breaking News Effect and Its Impact on the Credibility and Trust in Information Posted on Social Media

The development of social media has triggered important changes in our society and in the way consumers read and trust online information. The presence of consumers in the online environment exposes them to a greater extent to various instances of fake news, which are spread more or less intentionally. Sensational and breaking-news-style information are one of the ways in which consumers’ attention is attracted, by posting exaggerated or distorted information. The objective of our research is to determine the impact of sensational and breaking news headlines on content credibility. In a mediation model, we show that the perception of sensationalism mediates the relation between the presence of breaking news headlines and trust in the content of the information. Based on our proposed model, the existence of breaking news headlines increases the consumers’ perception of sensationalism and reduces trust in news content. These results have important implications for patterns of news consumption. If a piece of information is presented in a sensational way, it might attract more consumers’ attention in the short term, but in the long run it will reduce the credibility of its content. Based on our research, we recommend using sensational headlines with caution to maintain credibility.

Factors Associated With Police Bringing Children to a Psychiatric Emergency Room.

Sensational headlines describing police entanglements with young children have prompted questions about how often these incidents occur and why. The authors of this cross-sectional study examined the factors associated with police versus nonpolice arrivals to the psychiatric emergency room and those predicting subsequent police arrivals. Electronic medical records of children ages 5.0-12.9 years brought to a comprehensive psychiatric emergency program (CPEP) at a university hospital were reviewed to determine whether a child was brought by police ("police arrival") in response to a 911 call by school personnel, a mental health or other medical professional, or a caregiver. Extracted data included the child's age, sex, race-ethnicity, family makeup, insurance status, arrival status, referral source, diagnosis, disposition, treatment, number of CPEP and police encounters, and occurrences of aggression and suicidality. Multilevel and ordinary logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with a first and subsequent police arrival. Of 339 children with CPEP encounters from September 2017 to April 2018, 103 (30%) had had at least one police arrival. Children brought by police were more likely than peers brought by caregivers to be Black or Latinx, have Medicaid, come from families without two parents, and have aggressive outbursts or suicidal behavior. Results from multilevel logistic regression indicated that aggressive outbursts and suicidality were most significantly and consistently associated with experiencing both a first and subsequent police arrival. Clinical and sociodemographic differences in police arrivals highlight the need for a comprehensive systems approach for children, especially marginalized youths, who need psychiatric emergency care.

Media Framing on Headline News of the COVID-19 Issues in Malaysia: A Study of Malaysiakini and Astro Awani

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world in the early 2020 until 2021, society still currently face with the dreadful situation and its control precautions even though various vaccines have emerged to treat this infectious disease. The world community is also served with a variety of sensational and hot news headlines about the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine news headlines available in Malaysiakini and Astro Awani, framing the coronavirus in its coverage of the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The objective of this study is also to investigate the major frames of these two online news portals in terms of their reporting approaches on COVID-19. The research adopted a qualitative content analysis for the data collection process. For data analysis, the researcher read and code the study based on the scheme from Entman, which consists of four main categories, namely economic consequences, human interest and impact, attribution of responsibility, and health severity. A code sheet was created to capture all relevant story information, including news organization, publication date, story title, story narrative, frame definition, and tone. The findings provide exposure for the community to stay cautious and vigilant with headlines posted by online news portals, especially on sensitive issues like the pandemic. Furthermore, Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) could act upon any news outlets that publishes such provocative and misleading news headlines to the public with the help from National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ) to monitor each registered journalist to adhere to journalistic ethics in news reporting to ensure the information remain true and authentic.

Content analysis of reports of student suicide deaths in South African print medium newspapers

PurposeThe aim was to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of university student suicides in South Africa, using the World Health Organisation guidelines. Suicide among university students is a growing public health problem. The media has an important role to play in preventing student suicides by adhering to international best practice guidelines on ethical reporting of suicides.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a content analysis of print medium newspaper articles in the 13 most widely read English language South African newspapers from the period of January 2017 to January 2020.FindingsThe initial search yielded a total of 28 news reports, of which 19 met this study’s inclusion criteria and were analysed using content analysis. The quality of reporting showed both potentially harmful and helpful characteristics. Poor adherence to international reporting guidelines were found in the description of method and location of suicide, sensational headlines, publishing photos of the deceased, linking suicide to criminality, simplistic narration of the life events leading to the suicide and use of sensational and potentially triggering language. No reports adhered to all reporting guidelines. Findings suggests that there are widespread potentially unhelpful practices in the reporting of student suicides and a need for suicide prevention experts to work with journalists to promote critical reflexivity and ethical reasoning when writing about student suicides.Research limitations/implicationsThis study only included news reports published in English in the most widely read newspapers.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to systematically examine media reporting on suicide in South Africa.

Digital Technology: Key considerations for the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare and clinical research

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially in recent years, attracting sensational headlines and speculation. While there is considerable potential for AI to augment clinical practice, there remain numerous practical implications that must be considered when exploring AI solutions. These range from ethical concerns about algorithmic bias to legislative concerns in an uncertain regulatory environment. In the absence of established protocols and examples of best practice, there is a growing need for clear guidance both for innovators and early adopters. Broadly, there are three stages to the innovation process: invention, development and implementation. In this paper, we present key considerations for innovators at each stage and offer suggestions along the AI development pipeline, from bench to bedside.

For the love of lists: identifying the effects of listicle type and length

ABSTRACT Entire journalistic empires have been built upon sensational headlines designed to elicit consumer attention and provide advertising partners with what they want most: eyeballs on content. Listicles are used widely for that purpose with little research addressing effective design and viewer perceptions of use. This study proposes the following questions: what are the psychological mechanisms behind a user’s experience with various listicle forms? How does the clickability and length of a listicle influence consumer responses? To answer these questions, a 2 × 2 between-subject experiment was conducted. Findings demonstrated that clickable listicles (vs. scrollable) provide users with greater control, which in turn positively predicted a variety of cognitive outcomes and emotional and attitudinal communicative outcomes. In addition, longer listicles led to greater frustration, which in turn negatively impacted these outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Mapping the Volkswagen Diesel Dupe Crisis, its Implications and Sustainability of their Responses

The Volkswagen ‘Diesel Dupe scandal’ is no stranger in the automobile industry and the entire business community. This scandal is a fruitful reminder on the extent to which corporations can blatantly flout regulations and distort business ethics and morality. Many writers have written on this crisis and of course from various perspectives. Some approached the crisis from a technical standpoint, reviewing the ‘marvel’ of Volkswagen’s technological manipulation. Others approached the scandal from the standpoint of moral philosophy, demarcating the firm’s inherent immorality that has detracted the ethical values of the company. Journalists conversely have promulgated the scandal as a sensational headline in many reports. Of course, these writings are often detached with some paying overload responses to philosophies, others on strategic woes and a handful addressing the scandal from a techy perspective. This writing differs from previous works and attempts to fuse and associate the philosophical and strategic issues of the scandal to produce a remarkable analysis. Firstly, by improvising Andy Grove’s ‘strategic dissonance’ theory, this work attempts to plot the precise point in which Volkswagen’s diesel crisis relent a tsunamic moral repercussion. An improvised version of Grove’s model contributes to understanding the philosophical intricacies of this scandal capable of understanding the phenomenological moral repercussions in Volkswagen. Secondly, by using this phenomenological understanding, the current authors were able to accurately charter the precise impacts of the scandal and of course lastly to instill a distinctive evaluation on the effectiveness of Volkswagen’s crisis response strategies. The main contribution of this paper expounds beyond merely theoretical implications, but more importantly, the ability to connect and associate the philosophies of ethics with strategic implications.

From science to sensational headline: a critical examination of the “sugar as toxic” narrative

ABSTRACT Over the past few decades, some scholars have labeled sugar “toxic” and portrayed it as the primary cause of diet-related health conditions. In this paper, this sugar as toxic rhetoric – which is widely echoed in the public sphere – is critically examined in terms of its physiological basis and wider social consequences. We argue that the claims of the narrative are oversimplified and partly based on a particular interpretation of scientific studies. By exaggerating the hazards of sugar consumption often using emotive language, the claims generate public concern about it being a threat to their health, which, in the process, contributes to a sense of moral panic. The resultant anxieties give emphasis to feelings of individual responsibility for regulating sugar consumption, which can further generate feelings of guilt and shame especially among those with limited agency for altering their consumption. We contend that the science on which the sugar as toxic narrative builds tends to be ideologically driven in a way that deflects attention away from a more serious debate about food environments. We conclude that the challenges are considerable for those whose role it is to communicate public health messages, especially if the issue is complex and the science incomplete.

Challenges to Science Communication in a Post-Truth World

The communication of scientific hypotheses, and more broadly of the provisional and non-absolutist nature of science in general, to a lay audience is being increasingly compromised by the public's distrust of experts. This distrust frequently takes the form of hyperskepticism, expressed in unfounded fears and moral panics, and is amplified by a clickbait driven media. Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to entice users to follow the link, where the linked piece of content is often simplistic, salacious or misleading. The sensational headlines and summaries are then widely shared on social media by users with pre-existing political and psychological biases. This “attention economy” can result in the “wisdom of the crowd” – as expressed on social media and clickbait driven websites – drowning out the views of subject experts, and allowing for fearmongering and skepticism or distrust of science to take precedence. This article discusses ways in which scientists and communicators of scientific and other complex topics can help laypersons to understand the ways in which they might be prone to being misled. It also introduces concepts that will contribute to their better understanding and communication of scientific claims in a polarised and politicised digital age.

Discrimination for the Sake of Fairness: Fairness by Design and Its Legal Framework

As algorithms are increasingly enlisted to make critical determinations about human actors, the more frequently we see these algorithms appear in sensational headlines crying foul on discrimination. There is broad consensus among computer scientists working on this issue that such discrimination can only be avoided by intentionally collecting and consciously using sensitive information about demographic features like sex, gender, race, religion etc. Companies implementing such algorithms might, however, be wary of allowing algorithms access to such data as they fear legal repercussions, as the promoted standard has been to omit protected attributes, otherwise dubbed “fairness through unawareness”. This paper asks whether such wariness is justified in light of EU data protection and anti-discrimination laws. In order to answer this question, we introduce a specific case and analyze how EU law might apply when an algorithm accesses sensitive information to make fairer predictions. We review whether such measures constitute discrimination, and for who, arriving at different conclusions based on how we define the harm of discrimination and the groups we compare. Finding that several legal claims could arise regarding the use of sensitive information, we ultimately conclude that the proffered fairness measures would be considered a positive (or affirmative) action under EU law. As such, the appropriate use of sensitive information in order to increase the fairness of an algorithm is a positive action, and not per se prohibited by EU law.