Disappointed and Dissatisfied – the Impact of Clickbait Headlines on Public Perceptions of Credibility of Media in Croatia

The existing literature devoted to the area of clickbait lays emphasis mostly on content analysis as used by the authors to explore the basic features of published media texts. The market background of clickbait production conditioned by the need to collect clicks and, consequently, to increase online monetization, greatly influences the editing and design of headings, headlines, sub-headlines and sub-headings as media texts. From a narratological point of view, clickbait is a peritext that entices readers instead of informing them. Rhetorically, it does so by announcement and allusion. If a clickbait is successful, it encourages readers to imagine that clicking on a given hyperlink is likely to enable them to bridge the information gap. However, as clickbait leads to uninteresting and worthless content, the users feel betrayed and disappointed. This is exactly what can have an impact on the perception of media credibility. In this paper, we present the results of the first Croatian representative research study (N=1,009) that investigates public attitudes about the reception of clickbait content and places special emphasis on researching satisfaction and disappointment, i.e., the readers’ experience of the content of published headlines that have elements of clickbait, as well as the possible impact of clickbait on media credibility.