- Identify your tentative “underappreciated” genre (or subgenre)
Click bait… I’ve noticed that click bait is everywhere, not just in things like YouTube videos. Click bait is even incorporated in news articles and stories. Even crazy store discounts such as “Entire store 50% off”, and then when you go in the store it ends up being most things 50% off, but not all. Also, weight loss “magic” supplements that say you’ll lose 20 pounds in one week, or something not realistic, just to make you buy their product. Click bait is literally everywhere.
- What is interesting to you about this genre? Or, why might it be significant or otherwise worth paying attention to?
We often don’t realize how much we are lured into a thing or a product because of click bait and almost false promises. It would be interesting to understand how companies and products and things are so good at doing this type of thing, and what makes us as humans believe it.
- Tentatively, define/describe your corpus (collection of texts/examples)
There are so many examples I can use. YouTube videos, news stories, store ads, product ads, commercials, car sales, etc. All of these things somehow incorporate click bait and make their product or thing seem so much more amazing than it really is.
- Provide links (and/or titles) of five samples. (Try to gather samples from more than one “place” [or type] in order to obtain a diverse and accurate representation of the genre. For now, choose samples without significant deviations).
- https://www.ranker.com/list/clickbait/jacob-shelton– this link shows some examples of just plain stupid click bait, but they actually draw people in
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHi2ivnwDBs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns3b3KS8R_0– these two links are from a famous YouTuber who is known for her click bait, her video titles are never actually what happens
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiH147SqZPgAhVNj1kKHaEwA2QQFjAGegQICRAT&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthline.com%2Fnutrition%2Flose-10-pounds-in-one-week&usg=AOvVaw3UMwRr2mXs1vnTCxz05jY3– this one seems believable since it is from a health website, but it would be very hard to lose 10 pounds in one week…
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjf27CxqpPgAhWqwFkKHULXBE0QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplayingintheworldgame.com%2Fcategory%2Fadvertising%2Fpage%2F7%2F&psig=AOvVaw3TavAeZ6zQsljMxiNPIlHy&ust=1548862974892353– these are pictures examples of more dumb clickbait that actually makes people want to see if it’s true
Describe the Context
- Setting: Where (in what context or medium) does the genre appear? How and when is it used? With what other genres does this genre interact? How?
This genre appears everywhere, but I would say mostly either on the internet, TV, or store fronts. It is used all the time even when we don’t realize it. We may be super fascinated with something and lured into it thinking the product or thing is awesome, when it is actually just clickbait and then the thing ends up being disappointing. This may interact with other genres like advertisements, maybe… I’m not too sure.
- Subject: What topics, issues, ideas, etc. are common to this genre? When people use this genre, what are they communicating about?
As far as YouTube click bait topics can be anything and everything from “I danced with a tiger”, to “I robbed a bank with my BFF…” YouTube gets crazy. Then there are specific topics like weight loss, news articles, even car sales I noticed used click bait in a sense, saying a car is $15,000 out the door blah blah.. but then its oh depending on your credit and then there’s tax and this fee and that fee… When people use click bait they, or the product, or the store, are communicating a sense of need for attention I believe.
- Writers: Who writes the texts in this genre? Are multiple writers possible? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must writers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do writers write the genre (e.g., in teams, on a computer, in a rush, for their profession? for fun?)?
Anyone can be the writer for this genre. It could be a YouTube star, a news anchor, websites that put ads out on places like Facebook, store owners, etc. The characteristics include over dramatization, attention, outrageous ideas, things like that. People write these types of things in order to get a reaction and to draw people in for whatever their individual purpose may be. For a YouTuber it would be to get views, for a store it would be to make a sale; each writer would have their own reason.
- Readers: Who reads the texts in this genre? Is there more than one type of reader for this genre? What roles do they perform? What characteristics must readers of this genre possess? Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?
The reader depends on the writer in this case. For a store the reader would be someone walking past the store looking for a good sale, for a car sale it would be a person interested in buying a car, on Facebook it would be all Facebook users. Readers would read this type of genre with the purpose of finding out if the so called “click bait” is true. Is that car really $15,000, is that ad really true, is that sale really 50% off…
- Exigency/Purpose(s): Why do writers write this genre, and why do readers read it? What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?
Writers write this genre with the hopes of luring in a customer or reader, and readers read this genre or participate in this genre, with hopes of getting something out of it. Getting a good laugh out of the YouTube video, getting a good deal on the sale, losing weight with the “magic pill”. Each specific example has its own fulfillment to the reader.
I enjoy that you decided to tackle this genre, because it is becoming more and more prevalent on the internet, also very tough to avoid. Like you said it is like a promise that is not fulfilled, to make you click on their product or whatever to “hopefully” can you hooked. I also enjoy the titles that each clickbait title has because of how ridiculous they can be. I’m excited to see what rabbit holes this will take you down.
Another thought that would be interesting to explore is why the audience buys into clickbait? Are we all doe-eyed enough to make ourselves believe the impossible, or highly improbable, is in reach? The “oversell and underachieve” dynamic is so popular in advertisements, often to gain attention more than anything else. It definitely makes sense that the reader depends on the writer because I think most of us know which clickbait titles would never fool us, and which seem to say what we really want to hear and are too tempting to ignore.